


Way Past the Edge of Death and Into Oblivion

by Serriya (Keolah)



Series: Dancing on the Edge of Death [2]
Category: Dragon Ball, Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Geneforge, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Multi-User Dungeon, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Crack, Crossover, Dimension Travel, Dubious Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, Hell, Humor, Multi, Multiple Crossovers, NaNoWriMo, No Canon Knowledge Required, Non Consensual, Original Universe, Parent/Child Incest, Saving the World, Swearing, Temporary Character Death, Time Travel, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-01
Updated: 2005-11-30
Packaged: 2017-11-13 08:23:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 26
Words: 51,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The universe was destroyed. Some try to save it by embarking on a wild romp through space and time. And Aviel tries to bring Chaos to take over everything. A war with the scope of the multiverse ensues. Now, why can't these supposed saviors of the universe take anything seriously?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Parts of this story were derived from roleplay logs. It was co-written by Mauler (who played the Chaos characters), Rhuan (who played Rhuan, Duvon, Jason, and the Dragon Ball characters), and Dreamshifter (who played Asura and Gelidus).

And so, that was the end. The world was over. The universe had been completely destroyed and consumed by the merciless gods of death. There was nothing left. Nobody left to tell the tale. Well, except me. And those the rest of us who had managed to survive by escaping to another timeline. But still. It's the principle of the thing.

Oh, perhaps you wanted to know how it came about? Or maybe you were actually wondering who the hell I am? Well, let me tell you, then. My name is Kalli May. I was a Dancer on the Edge of Death. I never considered that I might be helping to bring about the end of the universe unwittingly simply by bearing a symbol that I didn't even know the meaning of. They always told me that it meant something very different from what it actually turned out to mean. It meant death. I always figured this meant I was a Dancer on the Edge of Death. The Dancers of Death were to bring themselves close to death and thereby attain enlightenment, from within the face of nearly dying one would find the answers to all things in the universe. But that was not what it meant. Not what the Urian Death Priests so often concealed from us, and so often from one another as well.

But when the Nameless Ones came, spilling out from the Ethereal Plane, what we used to call hyperspace, like ravaging terrors of doom and destruction, there was nothing we could do. Even the most powerful and mightiest of the Elkandu could do nothing to stop them. They had believed them to be slain, but they were not slain. You cannot slay a god of death. To kill them is to empower them. They only come back stronger than ever before, and with a vengeance to wreck against those who had so attempted to affront them.

The Nameless Ones aren't really nameless. But the Urians concealed their names so completely that they managed to let on to most of the population that they had no names at all, and only priests knew they even had names at all. Only the High Priest of the Nameless Ones was to know what their names were. Because just speaking their name could invoke great and terrible powers down upon the speaker, whether or not they realize or intend it. Perhaps this was what finally befell us, when the names of all six of the gods of death were spoken aloud by unbelievers.

They had travelled into their dark realm, on a dead planet in the fringes of the Karzan Galaxy. There were seven of them who went. Rhuan, the mighty Chronomancer. Suzcecoz Ilawi, the greatest technomancer who ever lived. Jenna Jordan, my granddaughter and a good person, if a bit cynical and sarcastic at times. Theodore Nott, whose cutting wit surely would have wounded the gods had he managed to get in far enough to meet them. Kanraku, the bizarre hybrid born from the Geneforge. Goku, a strange alien they called a Saiyan. And Tarna Tanson, a dreamwalker ninja.

Following Jenna's descriptions of ancient myth and legend, they went to this planet out in the middle of nowhere and from there fought their way past the Warriors of Death which were undead guardians of the gateway into the other world. Once there, they battled the Nameless Ones on their own turf and nearly died, but believed they had slain some of the death gods in the process.

However, they brought Dirania with them out of the world. Yes, Dirania, he is the god of "natural death", or so he claims, and he claimed to them to be a god of peace and that he had been betrayed by Ledonu, the god of betrayal, and was locked in the dungeon. But when he came with them, Kanraku and Goku had touched him and he had spread a strain of the Purple Death to them. They took it back with them to their own world where it continued to spread and might have had numerous deaths, perhaps even in the billions, had Suzcecoz not invented some nanobots to fight the plague.

Dirania they locked in a room in Castle Shieltas where they were to keep monitoring him. But he quietly passed away in his sleep and his body dissolved, and there was nothing they could do to stop him or save him. Perhaps they had foolishly believed him dead, but he was not dead, insofar as any god can really die. Unless, perhaps, they will themselves to like Shazmar had done in order to force himself to be reborn as Kanraku, but that was never confirmed until it was far too late. Did Shazmar realize this would happen or that any of this would come about, destroying his precious creation and everyone within it? I don't know. Maybe if he had he would have done something more to stop it. Maybe he just didn't care anymore.

Kanraku did escape the destruction and all, being in a different universe at the time when it went down. But the Nameless Ones were quick to spread there was well, and even the most powerful of the fighters there could not stop them. They would not accept the futility of their fight, however, and "killed" the gods of death repeatedly, forcing them to grow ever stronger. Finally it was their doom and there was nothing more they could do. Kanraku realized this, as he's not all that stupid, even if he is a bit naive sometimes, and he escaped into another timeline with me in hopes of finding some way to stop them from here. But this much is clear, that violence and brute force is definitely not the solution.

We fear that they will manage to shift timelines as well and therefore destroy all creation. Suzcecoz insists that this is not actually possible due to entropy and paradox. I'm not so certain about that, as I have seen plenty of things recently which these Elkandu claim is not possible by any means. She was wrong about plenty of other things, why could she not be wrong about this too? So therefore we must run and think and hope and pray to nobody because our gods have turned against us.


	2. Prologue

"What's going on?" Kalli said to Kanraku as he came running toward her Darknova heavy fighter. In the back of the ship, Suzcecoz and Asura were frantically at work on making upgrades.

"Death. Destruction. All over the place," Kanraku said breathlessly. "Goku. Rhuan. They're all dead. All of them. They thought they could stop them! They killed them at least a dozen times. Did they even realize it wasn't working? Did they realize that all they were doing was making them stronger? I couldn't do anything."

"We have to get out of here," Suzcecoz said, coming up to the cockpit and fiddling with the control panel. "I've rigged the ship to be capable of time-jumping much like I did with the stolen shuttle me, Sindri, and Manasa used to escape that place where we ended up three thousand years in the past accidentally... This one will allow more controlled access to other timelines."

Kalli looks out the window, at the view screen, at the readouts on the control panel, and sighed. "They're coming. We have to get out of here. We have to go _now_. We can't wait any longer."

Asura said gently, approaching from behind, "A Death Dancer, afraid of death?"

Kalli shook her head. "No, I'm not afraid. I'm not even capable of fear, remember? I'm just not particularly eager to meet my wayward gods."

"Well understood," Asura said, punching in something onto a side panel. "This should be ready in a moment."

Kalli stared at the screen, watching several blinking red dots approaching them rapidly from all sides. "Suzy... If you're done with whatever doing... hit it anytime."

"Ready!" Suzy said finally, punching in temporal coordinates into the panel and slamming her hand into the activation button. A rift into nothingness opened in front of them, pulling them away from the utter destruction of the universe at the last possible moment.

Kalli put her hands on the controls, gripping the sticks tightly as she maneuvered the Darknova through the turbulent rift. The Nameless Ones had warped the Ethereal Plane, but the experienced pilot could manage it. It was not nearly as bad as the Warp had been, after all. Normally, the Ethereal Plane in the Elkandu Universe was pretty passive and quiet, a calm ocean that only rarely knew storms or other disturbances.

Darkness engulfed them. For a long moment Kalli thought that they had failed, that they had not managed to escape in time and were trapped forever in death and oblivion that the Nameless Ones had intended to pull them into. Then light appeared suddenly in front of her face, bright enough that she had to blink for a moment before her cybernetic ocular implants managed to adjust to the light.

"We made it," Suzcecoz said, checking the systems and running a quick diagnostic to ensure that they had ended up in the right place and time. "We are now in the Lezaria system, Timeline Linear-Zeta-6, in the year L.Y. 4366."

"Was that where we intended to go?" Kalli asked.

"Not particularly, but it'll do, seeing as it's intact at any rate," Suzy answered.

"And all that entropy, paradox business?" Kalli pressed.

"Eh, don't worry about it. It's not actually possible to change the past since any attempt to do so will result in a new timeline splitting off instead. The timeline we're in is fairly similar to Linear-Alpha, but there are marked differences that will soon become apparent. Not that any of you have really studied Elkandu history, but whatever."

"What about the Interdimensional Bridge?" Kalli wondered, steering the craft into orbit around the large green-blue planet that was the only habitable planet in the system. A large silvery moon and a smaller greenish moon circled around the planet, and the sun was brighter than average she was used to.

"Theoretically, the bridges shouldn't exist in this timeline, however it's questionable seeing as most of the universes indicated had been visited previously by the Elkandu anyway," Suzy said. "Many of them had been prime subjects during the Ten Generation Day. We should be after that point, but seeing as it's a different timeline, it's hard to tell, it may not have happened yet, it might have happened sooner, or it might not have happened at all."

"I thought you were the expert on this sort of stuff," Kalli said as she brought the ship down into a lower orbit.

"Well, I am. But I didn't exactly have a good deal of time to scan the temporal differences, seeing as at the time we were primarily attempting to avoid obliteration."

"Yeah, understood," Kalli muttered. "Where shall I bring us down?"

"Hmm, I spent a good deal of time in the Valley of Gal at one point, but I'd say Tinemocun is probably the best bet. From there we can see what the state of the universe is and then head over to Torn Elkandu or somewhere to chat up people."

"Alright then," Kalli said, giving a shrug as she brought the little ship down out of orbit and coming down toward a city on the large, northern continent, situated at the northern end of a rough mountain range which was almost visibly golden in hue. This was the center of government of Lezaria and had been for thousands of years, ever since the founding of the Elven Council and the Wizard's Guild. For a long time though after the fall of the Wizard's Guild to the wiles of Arkavellet, Tinemocun was only the seat of government for the northern continent of Zarhanna, however. But Arkavellet was actually Sardill in disguise, and he was not actually such a bad person after all, but even he had been helpless to stop the Nameless Ones. His ability to alter the laws of physics and change things on a global scale was not all that helpful in the end, as they were far more powerful than him and were not subject to his laws and powers. This had come as a great surprise to him as he was slain by the Gods of Death and his soul dragged off into the Ethereal Plane for extended torture and torment by the god of Torture, Vedalot. Considering his fondness for the form of a hydra with heads of Jar Jar Binks, Martha Stewart, George W. Bush, and Barney, one could expect that Sardill might not be enjoying himself at the moment, assuming he was even still conscious. Not that the moment was a particularly useful terminology considering they were several hundred years in the past and in another timeline entirely, but never mind that.

Kalli landed the Darknova X-32 heavy fighter (modified) down at what had been the landing pad in the timeline she had been familiar with. However, as the people of Tinemocun were currently using it as a marketplace and were peddling fruits and vegetables there, her landing of the ship came as quite a surprise as a stand of produce was overturned and a quilt went flying and draped itself across the front of the ship, blocking the view. "Ack," Kalli said, bringing the ship to a halt and popping open the hatch to remove the offending piece of fabric.

Suzcecoz continued to run diagnostics and make minor tweaks and modifications to the ship's systems while Asura and Kanraku climbed out of the ship to make sure nobody was hurt by the abrupt and poorly-planned landing. One wood elf was cursing up a fit and pointing angrily toward the splattered produce that stained the stone floor below the ship. A young song elven girl was staring up at the ship with eyes wide as if she had never seen anything quite like it before, which was entirely likely since spaceships were never particularly common on Lezaria, especially during this primitive era. This was, after all, even before the Elkandu Crisis had occurred yet, or at least it should be.

Kalli removed the lavender quilt with pretty little flowers and teapots on it from the front of the ship to allow her to actually see where she was going, and glanced around for a moment to see who the owner was to hand it back to them. Suzcecoz climbed out of the ship, giving a bit of a stretch as she did so and holding up a hand to shield her eyes from the brilliant Lezarian sun as she glanced up and about the immediate vicinity.

Kanraku smiled and waved a bit at the people milling about and staring at them, especially staring at the ship and staring at Kanraku. He was, after all, a bit of an unusual sight around here, even without his wings. His monkey tail, turquoise skin, and three-toed feet slightly gave him away as being fairly alien to this particular planet, and really alien from any planet at all since he was an artificial hybrid created from the Geneforge accidentally during an attempt by which to create the perfect being which didn't actually work out very well since perfection doesn't really exist in the manner they were actually thinking of and even the so-called perfect beings which they ended up with were not really so much perfect in the first place and did not manage to stand much against the Nameless Ones when the gods of death came for them and slaughtered them all and stole their souls and dragged them off screaming into what might as well be called hell to be tortured and tormented and put into pain by being forced to listen to Martha Stewart rapping for an extended and arbitrarily long period of time which might end up being infinite or at least until the gods got bored of them and wandered off to do something else and try to destroy yet another universe as if they hadn't already destroyed enough as it was.

Kalli, unable to locate the supposed merchant who was selling quilts, finally sighed and put the piece of fabric aside and joined the others in staring around the area. Suzcecoz had started heading off toward the Council Hall by now, and Kalli, Kanraku, and Asura decided to follow after her, Kalli first checking to make sure that the ship was securely locked down and password protected so that no random person could just come along and steal her ship since that would be fairly annoying as they would then have to wait until Suzcecoz built them a new ship. And, while Suzy could build her ships fairly quickly when she set her mind to it, that would also require having the materials on hand to do so, which she probably carried around in her bag of holding anyway since she seem to carry enough spare parts and tools to build a large spaceship given the time and reason to do so. The ship was safely password protected with her usual password, "Hamilton wood snake", named after an animal which she had grown fairly fond of during her time as a Death Dancer pirate and rebel in the Karzan Galaxy, which was one of the deadliest animals known to humanity in that galaxy, for its fast-acting poison and deadly bite. Kalli sometimes rather likened herself to the wood snake, for her own ability to quickly and efficiently kill when she had a need to do so, even though she tended to prefer not to since she wasn't an evil sadistic megalomaniac freak who went around randomly killing people for no reason other than getting off on it.

The Council Hall was currently at the moment primarily occupied by a couple elves and a zephyl sitting around the table looking over some papers, since the council was probably not in session at the moment anyway. It would still most likely be the Council of Races, since the Council of Nations which was the form of government used in current Linear-Alpha was overhauled during the War of Planar Dominance by Thorn who had believed it to be a fairly silly idea to have each race have a single representative on the council even when one race might have only a million inhabitants on all of Lezaria while others might have over a billion, and the fact that the wild elves, minotaurs, and palistelli had never even bothered to send representatives in the first place and didn't really care what the people in Tinemocun did, since they were more concerned with their own affairs than the world government which didn't much affect them anyway since they would just do whatever they wanted and ignore whatever decisions the legislature there might make in the first place so they would just keep on going around living in their mountains and forests and deep oceans and randomly looting, pillaging, or just sitting around being hermits and not giving a damn about modern society and probably didn't even know what computers and digital watches were and most likely were still using bows and arrows and making fire by rubbing two sticks together instead of just using magic.

"Yes?" said one of the elves, a song elf, looking up from the papers he was perusing at the four people coming in. "Can I help you with something?"

"Well, we're from another timeline, and--" Suzy started.

"No, don't say anything else," the elf cut her off. "We don't need any of that nonsense here. We've already had enough paradoxes for one lifetime."

"Paradoxes?" Kalli said. "Paradoxen, paradoces, paradoxi?"

"Never mind!" the elf snapped. "Listen, just get out of here right now, we don't need your trouble! This is a bunch of crap and I hate it. Time travel should be banned!"

"You've gotten time travellers before?" Suzy said, a bit confused.

"Oh, all you Elkandu, flitting about time and the universe and thinking you can do whatever you want. I'm sick of it! You call us 'mensch' and you completely ignore whatever our rights might be and whatever we might want to say or do. You don't give a damn about us poor mensch, who don't have your crazy, wild magic and can't change the universe with a snap of our fingers, and really don't care to since all we really want to do is live a normal, peaceful life without crazy monsters showing up and rampaging around or magically created plagues sweeping across the countryside and you abusive wizards stealing our chairs, clothes, and ice cream solely because you wanted them!"

"Well, sorry," Kalli said, "If you must know, I'm not an Elkandu myself, I don't have any magic, I'm a 'mensch' like you."

"Oh," the elf said. "Sorry. So uh, what are you doing travelling through time then?"

"Escaping the destruction of the universe, primarily," Kalli said. "The Nameless Ones didn't care if people were mensch or mages, either. They just killed, and killed everyone in their path, and then killed everyone not in their path."

"Well, that's a terrible thing, but frankly we have nothing to do with it. Keep your problems to yourselves! We don't want them! We certainly don't want those Nameless Ones or whoever they are to show up here and do that here too!"

"Yes, that would probably be a bad thing, but we primarily just need a place to rest and recuperate to be able to try to formulate a plan in order to defeat them and regain our universe," Suzy explained calmly, trying to soothe the livid mensch.

"Well, you can just do it somewhere else then! Shoo!"

"Fine. We'll go. But that doesn't mean they'll spare you if they do come here," Suzy said, turning on her heel to walk out of the Council Hall and back toward where they had left the fighter ship.


	3. Why We Keep Getting Kicked Out of Timelines

So from there they travelled to another timeline. And then another. And another, and another and another. And, for various reasons, not the least including the one in which Kanraku thought a guy's head was actually a piece of chocolate and attempted to eat him, they kept getting kicked out and told to leave quite firmly. Being the supposed good guys, they proceeded to politely leave as per people's wishes rather than impose themselves upon people where they were not wanted, since there were supposedly an infinite number of timelines in which they could end up in and they could always just find another after all. But it did take them, subjectively, at least a week in order to find a timeline in which they did not immediately get kicked out of.

They came in and landed down at Iron City in this timeline, which was Timeline Branch-Nu-12, and from there decided to not just announce that they were from an alternate timeline and went into the nearest bar to just get drunk since they were awfully feeling put out from the entire business. Kanraku had a bit too much mead and proceeded to accidentally blow up the bar, which was something of a wonder as you would tend to assume that because of his unusual physiology that he would not be affected by alcohol in the first place, but apparently he was to one extent or another and well, that was how they got kicked out of yet another timeline. Well, technically they were probably just being kicked out of the city and they probably didn't even realize or know that they were from an alternate timeline or would not really care if the group just went to Hasaris or someplace, but they decided to just play it safe and get out of the timeline and preferably prevent Kanraku from accidentally blowing up the ship while they were in it which would not be much of a good thing as it might be slightly painful and require Suczecoz to resurrect them again and then repair the ship.

So then they shortly after that ended up in Timeline Linear-Mu-5.5, and after curing Kanraku of his drunkenness, decided to just frequent a restaurant that did not serve alcoholic beverages instead. But after Kanraku ate everything in sight and they didn't have the money to pay for any of it, they got kicked out again quite rapidly after being forced to do the dishes, which they obliged to since they were the good guys and good guys don't just steal things and run off and try to get away with it and in general attempt to act good and abide by the law even if the law was made by mensch that really couldn't actually force them to do anything anyway. But after that they left the timeline again.

"You know, I don't think this is really helping overmuch," Suzy said. "Let's try Timeline Linear-Omega-9 instead."

Omega was an unusual timeline as it was on the fringe of what might be considered still remotely a relative of Linear-Alpha, as it was technically as far away from Alpha as one could get and still be of the same family of timelines. It was fairly bizarre and confusing to the poor hapless time-travellers, who shortly thereafter ran into an alternate of Theodore Nott who for some reason started hitting on Kanraku. Kanraku, however, still looked like a 12 year old, and was extremely confused about this.

"I'm not your type," Kanraku said. "I'm not even your species. I'm a Saiyan. Sort of."

"Technically, you're not exactly actually a Saiyan," Suzy pointed out. "You were made from the Geneforge."

"Technically, I _am_ the Geneforge," Kanraku clarified. "Or something like that."

"Hey, mixed marriages are all the in thing these days," Theodore said.

"Technically I'm not even twelve years old, seeing as I was born two months ago. Or five years ago. Or a hundred years from now. Or... oh hell. Time travel is confusing."

"There is a reason why people want it banned," Suzy put in.

"Aw. Well, can I at least hang out with you for a bit? Time travel sounds awfully interesting. Or at least more interesting than messing with Draco again, as he does get so annoyed at my wit and logic sometimes. I guess he can't handle being around smart friends, and hence why he always hangs around with Crabbe and Goyle all the time."

"Well, if you want, but you know you may never be able to see this timeline ever again," Kanraku said.

"So much the better! Snape does so ramble on about his Potions classes, even if I _am_ in Slytherin, it does get so tiresome hearing him bantering with Potter all the time."

Kalli butted in, saying, "Well, the Darknova is capable of seating a maximum of eight people, although it wasn't really designed for them all to sleep in there too, I don't really intend to be sleeping in the ship a lot if at all possible, as it tends to get very uncomfortable. Fortunately the veil through the places we have been travelling through is weak enough that we don't have to, but if we ever get caught in one of them we may have to..."

Suzy said, "Don't worry, after I install the replicators I'll work on putting an expanding enchantment over the place. Properly enchanted it will be able to hold a much, much larger amount of space and seem as though it is a battleship even when it is the size of a fighter if you wanted."

"That might be a bit much," Kalli said. "There aren't that many of us, after all. Karzan battleships can hold a standard crew complement of two million people, after all. But then, the Primos always did take everything to excess."

An angry man stalked up toward them, shaking a fist. "You are being fined 500 gold for loitering and illegal parking." He shoved a piece of paper on the front of the ship, and then stalked off.

"Speaking of which," Kalli said. "Maybe it's a good time to leave. And stop loitering, apparently."

The five of them proceeded to pile back into the spaceship again and zip off to yet another timeline where they might not get in trouble for loitering or illegal parking. Whatever that was supposed to mean anyway.

Theodore briefly attempted to hit on Asura, however didn't really particularly achieve overmuch success, leading him to believe that Asura was straight and not inclined to be attracted to some random teenage wizard. Then he attempted to hit on Kanraku some more, confusing him even further with witty pickup lines and discussions about his prostate. Suzcecoz commented offhandedly, "I don't recall our Theodore being quite this annoying."

Theodore said, "Oh, I'm sure he was, simply in a different manner."

"Most probably. Either that or your current overwhelming presense of annoyance cancels out all the memory of previous annoyances in my mind and overshadows them to the point where they do not seem to be nearly quite so bad as they actually were given the time due to the distance in proximity from the original temporal position from which they actually occurred."

"That made no sense whatsoever," Theodore retorted. "Perhaps you could restate that, in English?"

"You're so annoying that it makes every other previous annoyance seem not as annoying."

"Oh, I see," Theodore said. "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

"Because it was less technically correct. Now, I need to recalibrate the main deflector dish and remodulate the access relay on the secondary tubular pod in order to increase the efficiency of the power output of the luminiate core to properly install a food replicator so that we can keep Kanraku fed without getting us fined or made to do dishes."

"Yay, replicators!" Kanraku said excitedly, clapping his hands together cheerfully.

"Kanraku, you just watched the universe blow up, how can you be so cheerful?" Kalli asked.

"Self-denial and having the attention span of a butterfly on LSD," Kanraku replied.

"I suppose that could do it, yeah," Kalli said with a smirk as she steered the ship. "Can we find a timeline that we _don't_ get kicked out of immediately, please?"

"I will do try," Suzy said. "But I won't make any promises."


	4. It's a Wonderful Timeline

And thusly, thereby the five of them ended up in Timeline Linear-Chi-9, which was fairly quiet at the moment if nothing else and did not make it a point to kick them out at the nearest opportunity. They settled in for a moment of relaxation to work down their nerves after the recent harrowing events and relax a bit, except for Kanraku who was not allowed to relax since he tended to get bored and blow up things and he wasn't really stressed out particularly anyway, or at least to any point that he let on at any rate.

"This place seems nice enough," Kalli said, sitting back and sipping a cup of lernade which wasn't really ice cold at the moment although it was colder than lukewarm and the ice in it had already mostly melted. "But what's our plan of action? How are we going to save the universe? Considering the universe has already been destroyed."

"Well, I've been thinking about that," Suzcecoz said. "The Nameless Ones may have an amazing ability to come back from death, but then so do I, so perhaps the solution is to soulfire them as things generally don't come back from soulfire or if they do they are greatly weakened. The only issue with that solution is the fact that powerful Soul Mages such as myself tend to be naturally resistant to soulfire and so it probably wouldn't work at all anyway or if it did it would require an enormous power source in order to produce a soulfire of sufficient magnitude to properly destroy their souls completely and I am not too certain where we could get such a power source aside from a massive soul web or the Zarniths from multiple timelines."

"So what's the plan?" Kalli said slowly and patiently listening to Suzy's incessant rambling and not really understanding a word of it. She picked absently at her salad with lettuce and bits of olives and tomatoes in the meantime, popping some of it into her mouth occasionally and musing over the flavor of the particular salad dressing used on the salad which was somewhat tangy but she couldn't really identify the flavor.

"I don't know yet," Suzy admitted. "I'll have to think on it a bit more. While the resources are certainly at our hands to manage it, it is still a bit of a longshot and I don't want to bank on it without further planning. Hopefully we'll have sufficient time to pull together a decent plan before they attempt to travel through time, and even if they did it's not like they will be very effective anyway due to entropy, and they won't be able to really follow us due to all the time-jumping we did between where we initially left and where we are currently at."

"Suzy," Kalli said. "Never say something like 'hopefully they won't' et cetera, because you know if you say it, it's going to happen."

"That's a fairly pessimistic view of the situation," Suzy said. "Logically, and statistically, it's just not going to happen all that easily, and if we take into account--"

"No," Kalli said. "Remember, the stupidest thing is always the thing that happens. Always. And you know as well as I do how likely the most unlikely of possibilities are to occur. Million in one chances happen nine times out of ten. Let's not rest our hopes on them not doing something. Instead, I'll assume they can and will do something eventually and it's just a matter of how and when, but consider that it could be at any moment."

Suzy frowned. "Then we would constantly have to be prepared to leave anywhere we're at on a moment's notice. We would never get a moment's sleep."

"Do any of us actually sleep anyway?" Kalli asked with a smirk.

"Well, you do have a point there, but maybe Theodore sleeps?"

"He's not all that important in the grand scheme of things anyway," Kalli said, rolling her eyes a bit as she thought about the strange gay teenage boy who had thrown himself in with them.

"That's another good point. Why is he even along, anyway? He's not actually helping or contributing anything, and he's not even from Linear-Alpha. It just seems a bit pointless to have him there at all," Suzy mused. "Although all things considered he _might_ say something useful, but hell, he's not even much of a mage, he's just a Seeker, Illusionist, Water Mage."

"I am not even much of a mage, either, if you recall," Kalli said, smirking again.

"Right, you're just a mensch," Suzy said lightly. "But at least you have nifty cybernetic implants and you know how to use technology or at least fly that thing around and you're a great pilot and I doubt I could have flown the ship out of that rift like you did and not managed to get us all killed or destroyed or utterly lost in oblivion for the rest of eternity."

"Er," Kalli said. "Thanks. I think." She scratched her head momentarily attempting to determine if that was a compliment or not. Finally she decided that it was, shrugged a bit, and went back to picking at her salad. She wasn't particularly hungry at the moment, although her implants consumed a good deal of energy when she was using them and required an excessive supply of calories to keep them running she had not actually used them a lot lately especially the ones which were particularly draining like the anti-gravity generators implanted into her feet and the shield generator that was set into her sternum and would protect her to some extent from incoming energy blasts such as those of laser weapons and fast-moving objects like bullets.

Meanwhile, Kanraku was engaging in the passtime known as 'basketball' somewhere nearby. He had already accidentally broken the backboard twice as he had overestimated the amount of force that it could withstand by quite a lot, causing the ball to go flying off smashing through the board and soaring some distance away to come to rest in a hole in the ground about half a mile from the court. "Oops," he said sheepishly as he repaired the thing with magic and went to retrieve the ball. Upon returning with it, he proceeded to accidentally break the backboard again. "I'll be more careful, I promise," he said, but at least the ball hadn't landed out of sight this time as he had thrown it with considerably less force which was still enough to break the poor backboard, and repaired it again magically.

"How did you get so strong, weird alien thing?" said one of the young boys he was playing with. "Is it because you're a weird alien thing?"

"Well, yeah, that too," Kanraku said. "I had a lot of practice. With fighting, primarily. I have never played... basketball... before."

"So I see," said the boy with a smirk. "But can you get it in the hoop? Without breaking anything in the process this time?"

"I will certainly try," Kanraku said, throwing the ball much more gently this time with the attempt at getting it through the hoop without breaking anything. This time he managed to fail to break anything this time at any rate, but the ball hit the hoop and bounced off without going through it. "Damn," Kanraku said as he went to retrieve the ball.

"Much better," said the boy. "At least you didn't break anything. It takes practice. Here, try it again."

And Asura was back on the ship, making some minor adjustments and giving a good look-over to just what Suzcecoz did as he attempted to figure out what she had done and how she did it. Her knowledge of technomagic was far more advanced than his, but he had come a long way in a short period of time and could stand to gain something from examining her handiwork.

Nearby, his mind flayer guarded him stoically and silently, strongly discouraging anyone who had a mind to try to mess with the ship while the others were away. One of these days, he was going to create a mind flayer that would attack him and attempt to kill him or eat his brains or something, but until then, he had pretty good control over it. Most likely because the being was simply a bunch of raw mana formed into the shape of a mind flayer and not actually a real mind flayer, and it probably had no memory whatsoever as being anything other than Asura's loyal servant in the first place. Asura had been an ordinary mechanic from the world of Mothin, but when he had been summoned to the planet on which they found the Geneforge, he had gained the ability to shape living beings from the strange canisters that they found on that planet, an ability which those native to that planet referred to as Shaping. He had since learned that he was also capable of Shaping inanimate objects as well, without much difficulty, although the more complex the object was the more difficult it was to Shape, as one would logically tend to assume. He tended to have the most difficulty with high-tech items although his ability with that was slowly improving with practice.

All in all, it was a fairly relaxing stay in that particular timeline. Of course, that was not to last, as every peaceful intermission ends rather violently, since it is some sort of law to prevent people from getting bored and then throwing them into extremely random situations just to amuse themselves. Which is what Shazmar used to constantly do, and then he went and got bored of that and then made himself reborn as Kanraku and made sure nobody found out about it. Sort of, seeing as everyone kind of just knew it was him but without any solid proof or any memories to back it up, they couldn't beat the crap out of poor Kanraku for all the stupid shit Shazmar used to do to annoy people.

"You know," Suzcecoz finally said to Kalli. "We could probably very well find a timeline that was recently split off Linear-Alpha and just avert the impending end of the universe since we know it will happen. Certainly it wouldn't save the universe that was already destroyed but it would restore a universe very much like it, I suppose."

"And how might we accomplish that? Nobody was powerful enough to actually defeat the Nameless Ones on a permanent basis, even before they became overly powerful."

"Well, one possible option would be to find a way to collapse the bridge to the Karzan Galaxy, in much the same way that the bridge to the Warhammer universe was destroyed," Suzy proposed.

"Which would trap me in your universe forever," Kalli said with a smirk.

"Well, you _could_ just cross over to your side first," Suzy said. "It's not really an ideal solution, and definitely not what I would have done with Warhammer, of course."

"No, naturally, you were all buddying up to Chaos already," Kalli said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, it wasn't so bad, really," Suzy said, smirking at her.

"Not that most of you Elkandu had a lot of sanity to lose in the first place," Kalli said. "You're all a bunch of insane powerful centuries and millennia-old raving lunatics. Of course, some are worse than others, I suppose, but I have yet to meet a sane Elkandu."

Suzy stared off thoughtfully for a moment, trying to think of a sane Elkandu, and one could almost hear the gears in her head cranking along as she contemplated this. "Hmm... how about Amanda?"

"Not having met Amanda, I can't really judge, but for some reason I'm doubtful," Kalli replied.

"Yeah, probably. She was always a little odd compared to other Elkandu, particularly what with her thinking elves were so great, which might explain the proliferation of elves throughout the universe... At least she wasn't as bad as Aitur."

"What did Aitur do, anyway?" Kalli wondered. "I keep hearing that name but I don't think anyone ever actually explained why they say he was so bad."

"Well," Suzy said, leaning back and putting her hands behind her head casually. "It was primarily because he thought elves were the superior species and all 'lesser' races should be exterminated or forced into slavery. And not just elves, _high_ elves. Wood elves were lesser than high elves, but still higher than humans and dwarves and stuff."

"Oh, so basically an elvish Hitler, right?" Kalli asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. Except he was an amazing hypocrite too, particularly considering the fact that at one point he was a metamorph too. It's kind of absurd to claim elves are the 'best' race when you can change form at will."

"But wouldn't your work on the Geneforge indicate that there may well be a 'superior' race?" Kalli inquired.

"Eh, not particularly," Suzy said. "And even if there is, it sure as hell isn't elves. We combined aspects from dozens of different races and species, and some mutant individuals of which there was only one extant specimen. And even so, many of the advantages were counterbalanced by heavy disadvantages. For instance, have you seen how much Kanraku eats?"

"How could I not?" Kalli said with a smirk.

"Yeah. It's because of matter-energy conversion, a great deal of matter is required to maintain the normal power output he puts off."

"Well, yeah, I know about that because my cybernetic implants work the same way... but I wouldn't really call it much of a disadvantage, especially not when you've got your replicators around."

"But what if you didn't have a replicator around? The energy consumed is enormous."

"Well, I've sometimes had difficulty with powering my implants, but in such cases I generally just turn them off or don't use them," Kalli said with a shrug. "But I suppose if that option isn't available that might be an issue."

"The Cybions certainly had a firm grasp of cybernetics and genetics, and the Karzans in general quite an advanced knowledge of gravity manipulation," Suzy said appraisingly. "But I'm surprised that you had not further developed magic considering the weak veil in the Karzan Galaxy, which should have made it a good deal easier to use than in most places. The psionics I observed was all fine and good, but there was a good deal of potential for far more than telepathy and telekinetics."

Kalli shrugged. "Some other abilities showed up occasionally, but most telepaths couldn't throw fireballs and lightning bolts around with a wave of their hands, to be sure."

Kalli absently thought back to one of her classes, in which the class was shown violent and bloody holovids to desensitize them to it so that they would not freak out in an actual combat situation. She had to question whether or not it actually worked, as it was difficult to judge on herself since she generally didn't get freaked out at much of anything even before that, perhaps because of her inability to experience fear due to her genetic manipulation that her mother had done to her before she was born. She had lost touch with most of the people she had known during her childhood when she became one of the Empress's Own and began working for the Karzan Empire.

"Hello there!" said a deranged voice ominously approaching them.


	5. It's Not Such a Wonderful Timeline

Kalli turned and looked over to where the voice had come from, and saw a being that could only, from the descriptions she had heard, be Harmony Kimchild. Severel tentacles ending in penises grew out from a mass of her body, and half a dozen eyes blinked at her slowly, each of them a different color, and on top of what might be a head grew a large set of deer's antlers proudly jutting up into the sky, and from what might have been the butt grew three tails, a fox tail, a monkey tail, and a lizard tail, each of them twitching in a different direction seemingly on its own, and at least six arms shot out at random angles, some of them ending in hands, some in paws, and some in bird-like talons, and along with this, two sets of wings grew from what was probably the back, one of them normal bird-like wings with polka-dot markings on the feathers, and the other brightly colored butterfly wings shimmering and rippling as they changed colors themselves, making her extremely difficult to look at and capable of driving mortals mad, although Kalli was not driven mad as she had probably already been driven mad by her contact with Elkandu anyway, or at least more mad than she already was, at any rate, although she was really comparatively sane all things considered.

"Oh," Suzy said absently, sitting up and glancing over at the creature, and addressing her as one would address a long-lost cousin who one had hoped to remain long-lost. "Hello, Harmony."

"What are you folks doing over here?" Harmony said.

"Primarily, sitting here, discussing nothing in particular," Suzy replied patiently.

"Oh, really? That's not all that interesting. Say, why are you being boring human-like things. You should get some antlers. Antlers are all the rage these days. Do you want some antlers? I can give you antlers if you want them!"

"No, Harmony, we do not desire antlers," Suzy said. "And to quote yourself, 'Antlers are cool. Doorframes are not.'"

Harmony scrunched up her eyes for a moment thoughtfully. "I don't remember ever saying that. But it makes sense, I suppose. You know, the wings sometimes get messed up in doorframes too, but at least you can fold those back when you aren't flying or showing them off to people."

* * *

**Interlude**

Someone else had also escaped from the destruction of the universe. Her name was Aviel Tintallia. She was no idiot, to think that the Nameless Ones could be defeated by merely blowing them up. You can't kill a god that way. It just doesn't work. When she realized what was happening, and her temporal sense indicated that the probability of the universe being destroyed was steadily climbing, she escaped into the Deep Void through which she traversed to another universe.

She was not, however, very experienced with Void travel, especially without a spaceship, and quickly learned that the Void was far from empty nor as safe or placid as one might at first think. It is a dangerous miasma of souls and strange beings, exiles from the various universes, and it was the connection between all the universes. It was darkness, and it was light. Time and space ceased to mean anything in the Void. However, Aviel was strong-willed, and had just seen Duvon torn apart by the Nameless Ones, and she could not save him this time. She crawled through the Void by inches, if such even had meaning there, which it didn't, and drug herself into another universe, one which had not yet been destroyed.

She realized quickly that the only place really safe from the Nameless Ones was the one place which had been effectively cut off from all but Deep Void travel. And that, was the Warhammer universe. She contemplated the possibility of becoming acquainted with the Chaos Gods again, and realized quickly that nothing short of a god would be able to destroy a god. And so, Aviel set her course and traversed the Void.

* * *

**Back to Chapter Four**

Kalli said, "You know, maybe people would be more inclined to be acquainted with you if you so frequently did not appear like a bizarre amalgam of sixteen distinct species."

Harmony said, "My reputation clearly preceeds me. I don't think I know you. Who are you?"

"I am Kalli May, of the Dancers on the Edge of Death, and a Cybion, from the Karzan Galaxy," Kalli said. "I'm not exactly from around here."

"So it would seem," Harmony said. "I can't say I've ever heard of this Karzan Galaxy, or those Cybions, or those Dancers on the Edge of Death, for that matter."

"I wouldn't imagine you had," Kalli said. "It seems none of you Elkandu did up until the Interdimensional Bridge incident, and even then nobody really cared about poor little us, even if we _had_ figured out uses for luminite you lot had never even so much as dreamed of."

"Most Elkandu don't really care about technology, though," Suzy said. "Their loss, in my opinion, although luminite does have excellent applications for enchantments when it is available. It provides as fine a power source for a strong enchantment as it does for a power source for a spaceship or blaster type weapon."

Then, since their little ship was getting a bit crowded, Suzy went off to build a new ship based on the luminite power design, with Asura's assistance. She called it the Darkstar Z-1. It included an actual mess hall, crew quarters, a research lab (in which she placed a crystal ball for some reason), a recreation room, and three bathrooms, in addition to the cockpit. It would prove a good deal roomier and more comfortable for an extended voyage than the cramped little heavy fighter, which, while it could seat up to eight people, was never really intended to house more than one or two people on an extended voyage.

Kalli just left them to that, although she did wish they hadn't left her alone with Harmony.

"Hey, Kalli!" said Theodore, approaching them.

Kalli corrected that line of thought. She wished they hadn't left her alone with Harmony and Theodore.

"Wow, you have a lot of penii," Theodore said to Harmony.

For several long hours, Kalli endured their presense as they discussed to one another various matters many of which were distinctly sexual in nature, wondering to herself where Kanraku was and considering going off to find him, not that he was especially better company than these two wackos, so she contented herself to leaning back and staring off at where the new spaceship was being built until at some point later Asura finally notified her via comm link that it was finished and she meandered over in their direction to take a look at it.

"Between the two of you, I'm not surprised that you got this done so quickly," Kalli observed. "But I thought you said you were just going to modify my old ship, not build a whole new one."

"All things considered, I'd prefer not to rely solely on magic for something like this," Suzy said. "We may end up flying into a mana-dead area or be hit with focused blasts of antimagic, and while I can make things to protect against such, it's really not worth it for the simplicity of simply building it a bit bigger. Here, come, allow me to give you a tour of the ship."

The cockpit was built in a similar manner to the one of the Darknova, although it was a bit smaller as it did not have the seats in back for passengers. It still contained a pilot and a co-pilot's seat, and hatches on each side to allow passage into and out of the ship. Behind it were doorways leading into the main room of the ship, which contained a large screen and some seating, from which the passengers could view what was happening in front of the ship without bothering the pilot in the cockpit, or just watch movies or television if they wanted. At the front of that room were a doorways leading into a small bathroom, and at the back were doors leading into the crew quarters, which had several beds arranged in a row and a large dresser and mirror on the opposite wall. There were likewise two more larger bathrooms leading off from the crew quarters, each of them large enough for a full bathtub in addition to the toilet and sink. At the back of the ship was the engine room, humming and glowing with luminite power. Off to the right side of the main area was the mess hall, containing a large replicator, a table with several chairs, and even a chess set to keep people occupied. Finally, off to the left of the main area was the research lab, which contained a good number of things which didn't really seem to have much to do with actual research, including a workbench, an alchemical station, a holographic projection of part of the planet they were on at the moment, a decapitated head in a jar, and a crystal ball.

Kalli stared around the room for a long moment before finally saying, "Suzcecoz, why is there a crystal ball in the research lab?"

"Oh, that. It's enchanted with Time Magic to allow viewing into the possible futures so that we might best determine methods for stopping the Nameless Ones," Suzy explained.

"And why is there a head in a jar? And whose head is it?"

Suzy just said, "Uh..." and didn't give a straight answer. Kalli rolled her eyes and stalked off to the mess hall to get a bite to eat and try out the new replicators. She also got a nice cup of espresso while she was there. She sighed, leaning back to relax a bit after her fairly hectic day. This was not really what she had anticipated when they had arrived here. But at least Theodore and Harmony weren't bothering her anymore in here. She just hoped they didn't come in here and bother her some more at least. Some peace and quiet would be a welcome relief after a long day. And sleep. She considered the possibility of sleep for a moment before deciding to just go to sleep and hope tomorrow would be better, and went out to try the funky new purple beds Suzcecoz had installed in the back of the ship. She discovered that they were actually quite comfortable and she fell asleep in moments.


	6. Meanwhile, Somewhere Else Entirely

Not that a "meanwhile" means overly much considering it's in another timeline and somewhere time doesn't really matter all that much anyway, but you get the drift.

"What are you doing here, Abram?" Emily said, glancing about the dank and dark dungeon that she had found herself in. It was really merely a representation of a dungeon within the Ethereal Plane, and not actually a part of reality at all, but the effect and end result was more or less the same, at any rate.

"Suffering eternal torment," Abram replied lightly. "What are _you_ doing here? Did you screw up so badly already to get thrown here?"

"Oh, right, this must be Hell," Emily said, rolling her eyes as she glanced about disdainfully. "Somehow I always imagined it to be ... warmer."

"No, that's down on the third floor," Abram said, getting up slowly and brushing himself off. He was still wearing the Urian Death Priest robes that Emily had sacrificed him in. How long ago was that? Weeks? Months? Emily could no longer remember.

"Somehow I don't find that at all reassuring," Emily said, sighing. She gave Abram a good look-over. "You don't look so bad yourself, for a dead man."

Abram folded his arms across his chest. "Considering you're here, I would presume you're dead, too. So what's going on out there? Did you at least have the sense to spread the word of the Nameless Ones to the Elkandu as I had been trying to do?"

"Uh, yeah, more or less," Emily said. "But things got all weird when the Nameless Ones themselves showed up and started killing people."

Abram raised an eyebrow at her. "The gods of death, physically manifested?" She gave a nod. "That's unprecedented. How did you accomplish that?"

"I didn't," Emily said. "I don't know why they suddenly appeared. But I don't think any of us had anything to do with it. I think it was something the Elkandu did. It had to be. I don't know what else it could have been."

"How would a bunch of unbelievers manage to summon the death gods into the physical plane?" Abram wondered incredulously.

"I really don't know. I am, however, inclined to think it was unintentional, seeing as they were the first to die. Plagues swept across entire planets, and the Elkandu could not stop them fast enough, because they kept mutating so that their old cures would no longer work. There was violence, bloodshed, rebellion and betrayal. And then, when the Elkandu were dead, they turned on the other unbelievers. And when the unbelievers were all dead, it didn't take long, they turned on their own followers."

"They what?" Abram said, as if unable to believe what he was hearing.

"The gods of death turned on their worshippers. They turned on us. They slaughtered the Dancers on the Edge of Death. And then the Urians came next. And then they killed me last, and dragged me here. I think it's fair to assume there's nobody left alive. They said I was to be the last to die, since I was their High Priest."

Abram scowled, pacing around the room. "I don't believe this. Why would they turn on _us_? How can they even exist without worshippers? They're gods!"

"... who thrive on death and destruction. And they grew only stronger when the Elkandu thought they had killed them. And they grew stronger with every death. I doubt they would have killed everything if they thought it would ultimately destroy them. We are still here, after all, more or less, I suppose... they still have our souls to draw power from."

Abram looked over to her. "You still have the broken-skull talisman. Are you sure you're really dead?"

"Well, there was a brief amount of great pain followed by claws dragging me into darkness. That's generally a good description of death, wouldn't you say?" Emily shrugged helplessly. "Besides, you still have your robes and all. I suppose it would be annoying to put us all down here naked, eh?"

"Well, that might be torturous in some cases, although perhaps torturous for others rather than myself," Abram said with a smirk.

"This is no time for joking around, Abram," Emily said. "The world has ended and we helped bring it about somehow, and you're sitting there talking about pants! And now we're dead, what in the name of Hell are we going to do?"

"Technically, Emily, I am standing, not sitting, and I'm not wearing any pants underneath these robes."

"Argh," Emily said, shuddering. She turned away from him, folding her arms across her chest. "Why do I even talk to you? Is this my eternal punishment for loyalty, to be stuck in a cell forever alone with _you_?"

"You weren't exactly particularly loyal, either, Emily," Abram said. "You did, after all, try to leave them for the Chaos Gods at the first opportunity. Whereas _my_ unwavering loyalty was rewarded with you sacrificing me."

"I would say they were undeserving of our loyalty, considering all that's happened because of it," Emily said. "Being the last to die is no great priveledge."

"At this point, I believe I would tend to agree with you," Abram said, leaning against a wall. "However, it's not like we can actually do anything about it from down here."

"We've got to get out of here somehow," Emily said, searching the walls for any sign of a way out. "There has to be a way out."

"Does there?"

"Yes!" Emily said fervently, slamming her hand against the stone wall. Cracks streaked through the solid rock. Emily peered at the wall, and smirked. "Right, Cybion strength, but if I'm dead, wouldn't that be my strength of will, or believing that I'm strong enough to break the wall? Fuck, at this point I don't care." She proceeded to pound against the wall some more.

"You're going to bring the ceiling down upon us," Abram said.

"And what, kill us again? I don't care! We are leaving, one way or another, and we are leaving _now_."


	7. Let's Discuss Time Travel Until We All Get Bad Headaches

Shortly after the completion of the new Darkstar, from which it appears that Suzcecoz had cannibalized parts from Kalli's old Darknova without her permission, which she was fairly miffed about as she now didn't have the little fighter she had loved so much for the last year or so they had been out. However, the new ship at least was small enough and maneuverable enough that flying it was not so much different, especially with how well Suzcecoz and Asura had installed the handling, as it turned on a dime and handled light as a feather, to which Kalli was well pleased.

They set off for Linear-Alpha-3, an alternate of the Linear-Alpha timeline some months before the apocalypse had occurred, in an attenpt to gather information that might allow them to avert the disaster or in some way alter the course of history, which was impossible, Suzcecoz insisted still, but to Kalli, altering the course of history in a timeline that may as well be their "real" one was just as well as fixing the "real" one. So they came in and parked the spaceship at the landing platform at the end of Wind's Road and disembarked to take a look around.

It appeared quickly that they had arrived at a point in time before Chaos had been cut off and removed from the Elkandu Universe, and Aviel was still in town. She saw them arriving and approached them, her robes flowing darkly about her and her eyes glittering dangerously. She was a quicksilver demon still at this point in time, and not yet a couatl, djinn, or phoenix, and hence her silvery wings were demonic and not feathered like a bird's.

"So," Aviel said as she came into their immediate vicinity, glancing over the ship. "Visitors from the future. What omens do you bring?"

Suzy said in an aside to Kalli, "Since our very presense here will have split off an alternate timeline, we dont' really need to worry about what we tell anyone here." She turned toward Aviel. "Well, in our future, the universe has just been utterly destroyed by the Nameless Ones."

Aviel cocked her head at Suzcecoz. "Yes, it is true what they say about Linear-Alpha. Million in one chances happen nine times out of ten. I had foreseen the possibility, but had not considered it likely enough to be concerned about. Since in order for the Urian Priests to find an opening in Torn Elkandu, Chaos would need to have been removed first."

"... yeah," Suzcecoz said, a little unnerved at how accurately the Chronomancer had assessed that. "It was. By Sardill. I'm still not sure why or how."

"Sardill," Aviel said, looking off thoughtfully. "He is powerful, but I doubt he could have managed it unless the gods had been cut off from immediate influence of this galaxy, by destroying or blocking the Interdimensional Bridge."

Suzcecoz nodded. "Yeah, the bridge was collapsed a few days prior to that. A dreamwalker detonated several ethereal nuclear bombs within the bridge just before the bulk of the fleet was about to come through. There was absolutely no way it should have ever worked."

Aviel frowned. "Another million in one chance. When was this to have taken place?"

Suzcecoz glanced around, scanning the town. "Where is Sindri?"

"Currently trapped in the past, with you, due to an error on my part regarding the Nexus runes," Aviel said.

Suzcecoz nodded. "Alright, now I know when we are. This will happen in approximately one week. I'm not too clear on the circumstances leading up to it, however, especially since I had never even heard of Iyriel before that incident."

"He will be found and killed quickly, and the cataclysm which destroyed your universe will be averted."

Suzcecoz smirked. "Well, it's not like changing things here will have any real affect upon our timeline, anyway. But still, it's something, I suppose."

"Don't be so certain, Suzcecoz Ilawi," Aviel said slowly. "The fate of all worlds is interconnected. The outcome of all timelines is intertwined. What happens in one place, in one universe, in one time, affects everything happening elsewhere and elsewhen. The ripples cross space and time, pulling, pushing, warping, and changing. The Trayziak Tatalyar binds and links all things together."

Suzcecoz stared at her. This went against everything she had ever been told. "You mean that it _is_ possible to change the past?"

"Yes, it is," Aviel said. "It is not so easy as you might imagine it to have been, given the idea, but it is possible. If it were not, how could paradoxes have occurred? How could the Elkandu Crisis have ever happened?"

"Paradoxes?" Kalli said. "Paradoxen, paradoxii, paradoces?"

Everyone ignored her, except Theodore, who snickered. Suzy frowned. "I think I see what you mean. I could never understand how the Elkandu could have gone to modern Terra in _our_ timeline, without having just split off an alternate timeline."

"It all depends upon being in the right place at the right time," Aviel said. "One small nudge in the right place can set off a chain of events that can affect billions of lives."

"Like how you destroyed the Karzan Galaxy?" Kalli said. "Not that I even care anymore. Sardill brought that back with a wave of his hand, too. I don't know why or how he did that either, not that that means much, seeing as I have no idea how any of you mages do your hocus pocus in the first place."

"The butterfly has flapped its wings," Aviel said slowly. "You cannot now stop the hurricane."

"So, wait. You're saying, even the smallest change could cause wide-reaching ramifications?" Suzy said, frowning some more. "Then how are we to know what is the correct change to make?"

"Some changes cause ripples you could not anticipate," Aviel said. "While sometimes other, huge changes, cause no appreciative change. Only a skilled prophet could accurately predict the results of any given action, and few Chronomancers are willing to delve that deeply into the future for fear of their sanity."

"Will you help us, then?" Suzcecoz asked.

Aviel looked at her, almost in amusement, for a long moment, before finally shaking her head. "No, not I. I have a dreamwalker to hunt down at the moment, but even if I did not, I do not have the skill or experience to properly manage that. However, I know one who does. He should be appearing at any moment now."

Suzy looked around in anticipation for a few moments. Nothing promptly happened. She smirked at Aviel a bit.

"Alternatively," Aviel said. "He could be _not_ showing up just to make me look silly." She shrugged and wandered off, going to speak to some random people about hunting down Iyriel.

"I think I know who she means, though," Suzcecoz said. "And you know what? I can't believe that our Mika would just sit around and let himself be killed. He probably escaped in the same way we did, by travelling through time. All we need to do is track him down and ask for his help."

"And how do you propose we manage that?" Kalli said.

"Hop in our spaceship and stare into the crystal ball a bit," Suzy said, turning for the Darkstar to leave again.

Kalli sighed and followed after her. "All this talk of time travel is starting to give me a serious headache."

Asura said, "Me, too." He had been oddly silent during their conversation with Aviel, and Kalli could not help but notice the look on his face.

"Something wrong?" she sent to him via the cybernetic communications link in their brains.

"Nothing," Asura replied, heading back to the engine room to work on something or other.

Kalli shrugged and went inside, having no particular desire to hang around crazier than usual Chaos Elkandu. If nothing else, at least they had left Harmony behind. Even if they did still have Theodore hanging around. She sighed and went over to the "research lab" to stare over Suzcecoz's shoulder for lack of anything more useful to do while she scanned timelines to attempt to track down the Mika with the precise temporal signature of Linear-Alpha.

"Is this really necessary?" Kalli asked. "Couldn't we just nab the Mika from this timeline if he's so important?"

Suzy shook her head. "No, remember, our Mika used the Geneforge and is probably actually one of the most powerful Mikas around."

"No, I don't remember," Kalli said. "I wasn't there for that, remember?"

"Right, whatever," Suzy said, staring into the crystal ball. After several minutes of that, Kalli just went off to play with the holographic projection which looked suspiciously like a train set. Then, several hours later, when she had still not gotten any closer to actually finding him, Kalli meandered off to get something to eat in the mess hall, where Theodore and Kanraku currently were eating.

"I'm just glad we have replicators," Kalli said, commenting on the large quantity of food Kanraku was consuming.

"Replicators are great!" Kanraku said, making several tacos disappear.

"Right..." Kalli replicated a giant stuffed crust pizza with pepperoni, pineapples, bell peppers, olives, and sausage, and proceeded to eat it over on the far side of the table as far away from Kanraku and Theodore as she could get and still actually be in the same room.

When the pizza was almost finished, Suzy's voice came over the intercom. "I found him, guys. Set a course for Timeline Linear-Beta-7!"


	8. Not Really All That Lucky of a Number After All

So then they took off in the Darkstar heading toward Timeline Linear-Beta-7, which Kalli rather hoped would be their lucky number and let them be done with all this randomly hopping around to places that looked an awful lot like places that they weren't actually an awful lot like, which was extremely confusing and gave her a headache. Linear-Beta-7 looked, at first glance, to be quite a lot like the place they had just left, aside from the fact that there wasn't a random proliferation of Chaos in the immediate vicinity, not that that really changed the Elkandu anyway, since they were always doing stupid things and having random orgies in the middle of the street even before and after Chaos showed up.

"Okay, here we are," Kalli said, glancing over at Suzy who was in the co-pilot's seat.

"Now we are," Suzy corrected.

"What?"

"We haven't actually changed where we are, just when we are."

"I don't care," Kalli said. "Now, where did you say this Mika chappie was again?"

"In Timeline Linear-Beta-7, which is when we are."

"No, _where_ he is."

"I don't know," Suzy said with a shrug. "Scan around for him or something. Knowing him, he's probably in the nearest bar anyway."

"Whatever," Kalli said with a bit of a sigh, tapping the commands into the computer and wondering just when Suzcecoz installed the ability to search for a particular person by their name. The computer came up with, "Search requested: Mika. Record found for Mika. Primary aura: Time Magic." It showed a pattern of deep blue speckled with a couple other colors on the screen. "Aura search commencing." It then began to list a rundown of which worlds it was scanning.

Suzy said, "That should find him wherever he's at, unless he's masking his aura, and I haven't really known him to do that too awful much, except possibly when he was off playing pirate, and it's not like there were a lot of Seekers capable of aura reading in the backwaters of the Seventy Islands anyway."

"If you say so," Kalli said, leaning back and watching the stream of names she did not recognize flow across the screen one by one.

Finally, the screen flashed with the words, "Match found. Examining temporal signature. Temporal signature matches Linear-Alpha-0."

"That's the one," Suzy said. "Where does it say he is?" she asked, leaning over to look at her screen.

"Wilderplane," Kalli said. "Town called Surgalon."

"Surgalon?" Suzy said, raising an eyebrow. "What's he doing there? That's in the middle of nowhere."

"Apparently, eating pancakes."

"Sounds good," Suzy replied with a faint grin. "Put her down over there, then."

"Aye, aye, cap'n," Kalli said, piloting the ship down to the little town called Surgalon somewhere in the southern part of Wilderplane, near the Sea of Doom. There really wasn't any good reason why it would be called the Sea of Doom, as while it certainly qualified as a sea, it was hardly particularly dooming, and looked rather like any other ocean she had ever seen.

Surgalon was a quaint little town nestled in the middle of nowhere, which appeared to subsist off raising goats and various crops. The buildings were rustic and built primarily of wood, which was quite abundant on Wilderplane given the vast unbroken forests of trees stretching from one end of the planet to the other, many of which were tall and wide and must be thousands of years old, large enough to be towns in their own right. The villagers had, obviously, never seen a spaceship before, and stared at the vessel rather incredulously as Kalli brought it down, careful not to land on anything humanoid or caprine, although she might have ended up squashing somebody's squash farm, but there wasn't overmuch she could do about that.

The five of them then disembarked thet ship and searched about for the restaurant in which Mika was currently eating in, Theodore making snarky comments along the way and primarily being ignored by the others. They entered the building, which wasn't particularly large as they didn't really get a lot of visitors this far out, and looked over toward the Chronomancer in question, who was presently indulging himself in a plate full of pancakes smothered with strawberries and whipped cream and drinking goat's milk.

Mika glanced over at them and commented, "Well, that only had a nine percent chance of happening."

"That much?" Suzcecoz said. They headed over toward his table at his cordial invitation and proceeded to order breakfast themselves. The waiter just stared at them strangely when Kanraku ordered a stack of forty pancakes as a small appetizer. "... at least we actually have local currency this time," Suzy said with exasperation. "Four pancakes," she said. "He meant four. He has trouble with numbers sometimes. Kid's not right in the head, I tell you."

"But I meant forty..." Kanraku protested.

"Four," Suzy said. "And if you're hungry later you can head for the replicator." She smirked slightly.

"So," Mika said, taking a sip of his goat's milk. "What brings you out to a place like this?"

"You're a Chronomancer. Do you really have to ask?" Suzy said.

"It's generally polite to do so, even if there were not several different possible things it could be. You might, after all, just enjoy my company or have merely wanted to meet up with somebody else who survived the end of the world, although that only has a twelve percent possibility."

"Well, we went to Torn Elkandu and talked to Aviel, and she seemed to imply that it was actually possible to change the past in some manner," Suzy said. "I don't begin to understand it as it goes against everything I've ever been told about Time Magic and the nature of the universe, but she seemed pretty convinced that it was true. About every action being capable of setting into motion vast changes in the universe. And about how the fate of every timeline is intertwined."

"Ah," Mika said as he ate another bit of pancake. "So that's why you're here. You want to try to change the past, then?"

"She said that she wasn't nearly experienced enough to do it herself, but implied that we should find you instead."

Kalli poked at her meal and said, "Is this goat cheese?"

"Is there any other kind around here?" Mika replied. "Changing the past is not easy, as I'm sure she told you. Entropy will resist all attempts at paradox, however, it is possible, and paradoxes have occurred in Elkandu history even when not really intended."

"Paradoxes?" Kalli said again. "Paradoxen, paradoxii, paradoces?"

Mika smirked at her. "However, in this case, it may be necessary. The Nameless Ones are not themselves incapable of influencing and even travelling to other timelines, especially with their dramatic increase in power. They will need to be stopped at the source somehow, before they ever grew to such power. Given the choice between the Nameless Ones and Chaos, I would have chosen Chaos. It's much easier to deal with and much less likely to actually manage to destroy the universe in any reasonable time frame short of many millennia. They don't exactly tend to do things very quickly, and were very likely the force of change which the Elkandu needed to break them of their stagnation. The destruction of the Interdimensional Bridge cutting them off made possible the rise of the Nameless Ones, but the subsequent events making that possible were so unlikely that even the most skilled Chronomancers could not have anticipated them. Million in one chances may happen constantly, but there are so many different possible million in one chances that any one of them could have happened."

"So you'll help us?" Suzy said, surprised that he was being so verbose and uncryptic for a change. That in itself conveyed to her much of the seriousness of the situation.

Mika gave a nod. "It may well prove nigh-impossible and take us subjectively hundreds if not thousands of years to manage it, but we have no choice. If they manage to affect key moments of the past, they may well cause paradoces that could rip apart the universe and bring about destruction of the entire spacetime continuum. The universe in our timeline may have been destroyed, but the possibility we face is total cessation of all existence. Suddenly, all the universe will have never existed. And given sufficient time and motivation for doing so, the Nameless Ones _will_ figure out how to do it."

"So, wait," Kalli said. "If the universe is to cease to exist, in the past, because of something they might discover in the future, in another timeline entirely, shouldn't the universe have already ceased to exist because it would have already happened?"

Everyone stared at her. "Beer!" Suzcecoz said. "We need beer at this table!"

The waiter was quick to bring them a jug full of beer and several mugs for them. Kalli didn't reach for it, although the others did, continuing her tirade. "Although perhaps since it hasn't happened yet, it will never happen, meaning that we'll succeed in whatever we're trying to do, but then if so, Linear-Alpha would not have been destroyed and we would not be here to try to do it."

"Kalli, dear," Mika said. "Just stop. Paradox is hard enough to understand when you're a Time Mage, and just about impossible when you aren't."

"I'll take your word on that," Kalli said, shrugging and pouring herself some beer finally. "So what are we going to do?"

"At the moment, we are going to drink beer and eat our breakfast," Mika said, proceeding to do so. "After that, we'll see about saving the universe."


	9. Making Time for Chaos

Aviel barely survived her passage of the Void, and badly wounded from the crossing she searched for the one person in this universe which she had previously known: Zso Sahaal. She could hardly afford the time to do so, but she did not figure that many in this place would refrain from shooting her on sight just for looking like she did. Also, she did not care to meet the Tau much again, as they had fairly disgusted her. Regardless, she did manage to find Zso, and zeroing in on his location, used the last of her energy to teleport herself onto the bridge of his ship in front of him.

One of Aviel's wings was broken and her blue, silver, and black feathered caked with blood, some parts of her still bleeding a bit from her crossing of the Void. Drained of energy, she landed face-first on the floor. Her robes were shredded and bloodied, tangling themselves around her bird-like feet. Zso, sitting in the commander's chair on board the vessel, glanced over toward her body. Aviel gave a slight groan and stirred a bit, moving an arm as she tried and failed to get up.

"Captain Carizo," Zso said, "I thought we had no daemons on board."

"We don't, lord," the captain replied.

"Then what," he said, pointing a taloned finger over toward the body, "is that?"

The captain blinked momentarily. Aviel slowly lifted her face toward Zso with great effort. Although her blood-streaked skin was pale and silverish and her eyes flickered with a strange blue flame, she still looked like Aviel. Zso's helmeted visage regarded her for a moment, but he did not seem to recognize her.

"So, daemon... ess... how did you get on board my ship?"

"Zso?" Aviel rasped. "It's me... Aviel... Don't you remember me?"

His tilted to the side as some recognition dawned on him. "From the world where I was summoned to aid Sindri?"

"Yes... that was only... at some point in the past irrelevent with temporal distortion anyway." Aviel slowly managed to at least sit up, still bleeding a bit but trying to ignore it as she could not even channel a spark at the moment to heal it. "Although, I was not _from_ that world originally..."

"How in the Warp's name did _you_ get here?" Zso wondered.

"I crossed the Void," Aviel replied slowly.

"That may explain your injuries." He tapped the vox comm on his wrist. "Apothecary to the bridge."

"Yeah," Aviel muttered. "It wasn't very friendly... but I didn't have much choice, after the Nameless Ones..."

"The whom?"

"The Nameless Ones... six gods of death from the Karzan Galaxy."

"Hmmm... They have followers?"

"Not anymore." Aviel replied grimly. "They turned on their own followers after everyone else was dead and slaughtered them all."

"Rather foolish for deities to do...no followers means no devotion, or no one to wage war on. Pity."

"And no one left alive, either. They destroyed everything. And this was the only place they couldn't get to easily... so I came here..."

"So they completely obliterated the universe?" Zso asked.

She gave a short nod. "Effectively, yeah."

The transport tube hummed and momentarily the doors opened and a man wearing crimson and black armor stepped out. "Apothecary, tend to her wounds." Zso pointed at Aviel.

"The daemoness? Lord, can they not simply regen--"

"Are you questioning me, Apothecary?"

"I'm not a..." she mumbled a bit, then glanced at herself and smirked. "Well, I can see why you'd think that at least."

The armored figure bowed. "No lord. I'll tend to her right away." He camesto her and knelt down. "Sit still." He said flatly, a scanner eyepiece coming to life. She sat quietly and motionlessly, her eyes following his movements. "Three fractured ribs, multiple lacerations, some internal bleeding, and, apparently, a broken wing," he said with a smirk. He quickly and rather roughly stitched the cuts, put a crude splint on the wing, and used a spray-mist cast to encase her torso.

Aviel gave a faint smirk, "Well, it'll do until I can manage to heal proeprly."

The Apothecary stood and left. Zso said to Aviel, "Well, the Crusade fleet is still quite confused about what happened, or what to do next. Sorcerers are attempting to glean the reason for our rather rapid departure from the universe we were in, and Abaddon has yet to give any orders."

"Sardill did it," Aviel said, and then paused. "Well, I think. There was something about a bridge collapsing due to somebody detonating large quantities of nuclear weapons, too. And then Sardill effectively cleaned up the mess." Zso just looked at her. "Sardill randomly declared himself a god and demanded temples built to him."

"That seems typical of your people," Zso said wryly.

"Yeah, thing is, Sardill is the only one of the Elkandu who could halfway pull it off. Considering he _did_ manage to completely remove Chaos from the universe and resurrect several billion people with a wave of his hand."

"Curious. But then he got taken out by these "Nameless Ones"?"

 She nodded. "He couldn't stop them."

"And they in turn destroyed their followers."

She nodded again. He shook his head. Aviel commented, "Kind of a bad deal there. I doubt anyone would have actually wanted to follow them if they knew what was in store."

"I take it not many of you escaped."

"I imagine not," Aviel said quietly. "I haven't seen Sindri in some time."

"Hmm. He didn't get forced back with us?"

She shook her head. "I know where he was at some points, but even though sometimes we were in the same city we never really ran into one another nor sought each other out," Aviel shrugged. "I was kind of busy with other things to check up on how he was dealing with not having voices screaming in his head anymore."

"So, Chaos was removed when the fleet was shoved back to it's own galaxy?"

Aviel nodded. "And me as well. And everyone else there."

"And Sindri was not pulled back through with us, so he must have had the Taint removed from him." Zso chuckles, not seeming to care that his ally wasn't really anymore. "I bet _that_ hurt."

Aviel nodded. "Hurt or not, he did survive, I sensed him and Manasa in Shieltas before I left there... Although whether or not he survived the end of the universe is open for question."

"Well, one can only hope he did."

"Well... I'm here now, and... there's nothing left to go back to."

"Your Sardill cannot reweave that which has been undone?"

"'My' Sardill has been dragged off into the Ethereal Plane where his soul is being tortured while helpless to do anything." Zso chuckles. "I just... I have no idea what to do now. Up until I got here, it was all about survival alone. There wasn't much room left to think of what _after_ that."

Zso told the captain to inform him if Abaddon made a broadcast, and then assisted Aviel into his quarters. They discussed the current situation and the state of the universe for a time. Finally, Aviel said, "The fate of all universes is intertwined. Given time, I could probably figure out how to open another bridge somewhere."

"Hell, you could become a daemon queen on the spot if you did that for Chaos. Not like you aren't already," he smirked.

"Also, I wouldn't put it past the Nameless Ones to do so themselves, or cross the Void. They were already setting to destroying other universes when I left... fortunate though that they missed me since I hid so well. I knew there was no way I could fight them." Aviel smirked, and they discussed the differences between Elkandu demons and their daemons. "I'm a quicksilver demon, time and change..." That got her to thinking, and she murmured, "Hmm... time... time travel... the bridge existed at _some_ time..." A wide grin spread across her face as realization dawned on her.

"Hmm?" Zso said inquiringly.

"I don't need to open a new bridge. It's already there." Aviel started chuckling softly. "Anytime. Anywhere. The possibilities are limitless."

As she speaks, the comm crackled to life with Abaddon's new orders. Zso looked at Aviel for a long moment, then ticks on his vox. "Stand by." He said to her, "What's this of bridges?"

Aviel tried to explain it. "The bridge existed. The bridge exists. It could not have been destroyed, only disrupted. And even if it were, because it existed at some point in time, it can be used at any point in time."

"So..."

Aviel stood suddenly and steadily, as if her injuries had already managed to heal themselves. "All it would take is opening a temporal rift _through_ the bridge, in the past, into a timeline unaffected by the Nameless Ones."

"So, you think if there is a way to open the gateway _backwards_ and re-establish the Chaos presence in that universe..."

"Yes!" Aviel said enthusiastically. "It's a common enough trick Chronomancers use. If a place is sealed up and warded, they'll go back in time to a point where it wasn't, then go forward again inside of it. It's just like walking around a wall and going through the doorway. Except in four dimensions."

Zso ordered a course set for the planet indicated by Abaddon's orders. "Looks like we have some loyalists to clean up first."

"Mmm. Yes, one moment, I need to finish resting." Then, in the blink of an eye, suddenly she looked rather more well rested and fully recovered. "Now. You were saying?"

"More of your chronomancy?" He raised an eyebrow.

Aviel grinned. "I would've done it sooner, but I couldn't channel at all at first. Alright, I've thought it over more, and I'm pretty sure I could manage a temporal rift. Whether I could manage one big enough to get a ship this size through is another question."

"Perhaps I could convince Magnus to get a few of his Sorcerers to aid you."

"Hmm, yes, a linked circle might be able to manage it," Aviel said thoughtfully.

He looks hard at her. "You're not of Chaos anymore, are you?"

"I believe I said that, didn't I?" She smirks.

"Well yes, but it just took a moment to sink in. All the background auras made it hard to see if yours was there or not."

"Heh. It's not like I really had much choice in the matter at the time. So why do you say that?"

"Well, I noticed the typical aura of a Chaos devotee wasn't about you. It's nothing that bothers _me_ personally, just dont let any of those Word Bearer fanatics see you if you want to stay the way you are." he said with a weak smile.

Aviel smirked slightly. "At this point, I honestly don't know anymore. I'd never really expected to end up here, after all that went down back at home."

Aviel opted to stay on board the ship as they attacked the planet. It was a total, overwhelming victory for Chaos. Zso returned three hours later. Aviel asked if he had spoken with Magnus.

"Yes, I encountered the Thousand Sons' Primarch. He was interested in being able to craft another portal. I don't know when he'll be ready, but he would contact me when he was."

She gave a nod. "Sometime, I believe I will need to meet some of these people," she mutters.

"You don't want to get in visual range of Angron and you don't want to listen to Lorgar for too long. Magnus is a little crazy, but he's a Grand Master Sorcerer and a Primarch, so it's understandable. He's livable, but all he talks about is his Warpdamned magik."

Aviel smirked. "What I want isn't really relevant, anyway. I don't tend to use the word 'need' without cause. The future is never certain, so I've learned to trust my instincts." She paced a bit. "Yes, need," she murmured. "I must meet this Magnus as soon as possible."

Aviel paced about nervously, scanning the area and half-considering trying to find him on her own as her temporal sense jabbed at her. However, before she could do anything rash, the comm crackles to life. "Primarch Sahaal," said a low, sinister voice, "I am finished with my business. Are you in your quarters?"

She glanced over at it, almost in surprise. Zso said, "Yes, Magnus, I'm here. You can shuttle over anyti--" He was cut off by a blue flash of coruscating energy, as a Sorcerer wearing blue and gold armor suddenly appeared in the room. "...Or you can just do that."

Aviel grinned broadly and relaxed considerably as she looked over toward him. She gave a slight bow of her head toward the tall man, and said, "Greetings. I am Aviel Tintallia."

He removed his helmet, a flowing red mane of hair falling out from behind it. She was greeted by a single, cycloptic eye. "I am Magnus the Red." he said with a voice like cold lead. "I am told by Sahaal you have knowledge of interdimensional travel."

With a nod, Aviel said, "That's what the Elkandu generally did, at any rate. But it's a bit tricky with the bridge disrupted."

"Intriguing. We must speak of this. Sahaal, do you mind if your guest and I parley on my craft?" Zso shook his head. Aviel gave a half-smirk. "Excellent." Nearly immediately, a phosphor-white flash enveloped Aviel and she found herself on board the Thousand Sons' ship.


	10. Timelines of Our Lives

"What are we looking for, anyway?" Kalli said, leaning back in a comfortable chair in the research lab on board the Darkstar as Suzcecoz and Mika scanned timelines, with or without the assistance of the crystal ball.

"In order to change the course of history, not only one, but many timelines must be influenced and altered," Mika explained. "There are, contrary to popular understanding, a finite number of timelines, if an arbitrarily large number of them to the point where they may as well be infinite at times. Much in the same way that while there is a finite amount of space, but there is still quite a lot of it. Time works much in the same manner."

"I think I get it," Kalli said.

"Probably not," Mika replied.

Kalli smirked a bit, and wandered off to get some espresso and leave them to their prophetic nonsense. As usual, Kanraku was in the kitchen, eating. Kalli gave him one look and said, "You know, this converting energy to matter and then into energy again is rather silly. Wouldn't just getting a power core installed be more efficient?"

Kanraku thought about it for a moment, then said, "Oh, that's a great idea!" He jumped to his feet and hopped out the door.

Smirking off at him as he went, Kalli mildly hoped he didn't bother Suzcecoz in such a manner that would force them to stay here longer. She decided to just follow him over there, as it was more interesting anyway even if it was very confusing. Kanraku went over to talk to Suzcecoz, so Kalli sat by Mika to leave them to that.

Mika was saying, "We may not be entirely alone in our endeavors. It appears that our Aviel also survived the apocalypse and may be working toward similar ends. However, whether or not the future she wants coincides with the one we want is open to question, it's probably best that our actions mesh with hers for the moment and worry about that later."

"What's she doing?" Kalli wondered.

"Apparently she's intending to open a temporal rift to bring the Chaos fleet into Linear-Alpha before the bridge was collapsed."

"But if she's going into another timeline," Kalli said, "shouldn't you be able to see what she's doing there too?"

"I can see several things that might happen, yes, but it's very convoluted," Mika said. "I believe she will end up causing a paradox. The outcome of that will not be possible to determine until it comes to pass."

Kalli frowned a bit. "That makes no sense, though. It isn't now, it's the future, or past, and another timeline entirely..."

"Paradoxii don't work that way," Mika said. "As otherwise, all that would have existed is the paradox itself, however the paradox does not exist until it is caused, at which point it will have always existed and what may have been the actual future at one point has been altered. A paradox is not really so much an event that could not happen, as much as an instance of changing the past. The universe abhors impossibility and attempts to correct itself. Hence, while things in the present may change, memory does not always, particularly in the case of stronger mages or those more intimately connected to the events in question."

"So basically, we are attempting to cause a paradox?"

Mika nodded. "Ideally, we would have to cause the Nameless Ones to have never existed, but that seems unlikely so failing that, we will need to make sure they are incapable of rising to the same power they did before."

"Wouldn't making them not exist drastically alter the history of the Karzan Galaxy?" Kalli asked.

"Most likely," Mika admitted. "Hence why I say it's probably not likely to manage that, unless you don't really care how it winds up, although that may change you as well, but it's less likely since you are so interconnected with the goings-on here."

"At the moment, I'm not sure I really care what happens there," Kalli said with a sigh. "It's been destroyed now twice more or less indirectly because of me. It has been fighting a pointless war for hundreds of years, and neither side is fully what I would consider reasonable or sane. Besides, most Death Dancers always believed they didn't exist at all anyway."

"That may simplify things a bit," Mika said. "Because if they ever existed in the first place, there's always the million in one possibility that they'll hit upon the right set of circumstances to bring out their mad power."

"If it will ensure that they can never do something like this again," Kalli said, "I'd gladly sacrifice myself and the current state of my galaxy, regardless of the consequences, if that's what it takes."

"It probably won't come to that, but sometimes it can be difficult to predict the result of a paradox," Mika replied grimly. "And it will also be difficult, therefore, to determine the proper course of action until Aviel makes her move. Most likely, while she works with that timeline, we will need to adjust another one, or make an alteration further in the past. Do you happen to know when these Nameless Ones first emerged in your galaxy, by chance?"

Kalli shook her head. "Not really. The Urian religion didn't emerge, though, until at some point after interstellar colonization was well underway. And it was for the longest time a fringe religion, little known about and very secretive, so it may well have existed before then. But I'd estimate circa Karzan year 2100 as being the earliest it could possibly have begun."

Mika pondered for a long moment. "I will need to investigate the origins of the Nameless Ones. Keep an eye on the crystal ball and poke me when Aviel makes her move."

Kalli gave a nod and positioned herself in front of it as Mika's eyes glazed over. She could see Aviel on board what she deduced to be a Chaos ship, speaking with a very tall man about matters she could not particularly understand. Absently, she wondered just when Aviel grew feathers.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Suzcecoz was busy installing cybernetics into Kanraku to assist with decreasing his food consumption. "This is my last luminite crystal, kid, so don't go breaking it or anything," Suzy said.

"I will try not to," Kanraku said.

"This won't make you anymore powerful," Suzy said. "It'll just make you more self-sufficient and not require you to consume vast quantities of food all the time. Luminite is a virtually unlimited power source as it generates its energy directly from the Ethereal Plane. Most Elkandu are capable of using that sort of energy to sustain themselves without assistance, however your power needs are much higher than that of most Elkandu."

Kanraku nodded as he tried to avoid twitching as Suzcecoz finished up installing the cybernetic hardware. It felt a bit funny there, but he figured he'd get used to it soon enough. When Suzy activated it, he found it very fascinating to not be hungry for the first time in his brief life. She backed away and put her equipment away.

"Neat!" Kanraku said, beaming and hopping around. "This rocks!"

"Your welcome," Suzy said with a chuckle. "I'd best go see how Mika and Kalli are doing now. Have fun."

"I sure will!" he said, skipping off to play with the train set/holographic projector.

Suzy rolled her eyes, smiling a bit, as she came up behind Kalli and, noticing Mika's vacant look, said, "What's up?"

Kalli said, "He's searching for the origin of the Nameless Ones and I'm waiting for Aviel to quit babbling about magical theory and interdimensional travel and actually _do_ it."

Suzy peered over at the crystal ball and listened in for a moment. "Meh, still getting poor reception on her. Well, at least I know how to penetrate just about any wards you can come up with or we'd not be able to get much at all. Wards are all fine and good, but if you really want privacy, you'll need to surround yourself in two feet of solid coronite. The demons aren't too problematic since they have no real way of getting to us if they can even detect this in the first place, which I'm highly doubtful about as it's pretty well inverted and uses very thin threads."

Kalli, having no idea what she was talking about, was thankfully spared the necessity of a response by Mika blinking open his eyes. "You do so ramble on sometimes, Suzy. I see she still hasn't moved yet. Anyway, I've discovered the origin of the Nameless Ones."

"Well, don't keep us in suspense," Kalli said. "Let me guess. They were sneezed into existence by a giant space turtle?"

"They're from Til'raine," Mika said.

"Say what?" Kalli said. "What is that?"

"Til'raine is the world from which all life in nearly every conceivable universe ultimately originated from," Mika said. "About one million years ago, it was consumed by the Ethereal Plane and most of its inhabitants transformed into insane monsters. However, before that, when they realized their world was slowly becoming uninhabitable, their mages crafted a new plane called Vel'kira and billions of them relocated there."

"So they were among the original colonists of Vel'kira?" Kalli asked.

Mika shook his head. "The Nameless Ones were among the Til'dari who refused to leave Til'raine. While many of their compatriots were mutated beyond madness, and often to the point of death, the Nameless Ones were made virtually immortal by the changes to their bodies and souls."

"Wait," Suzy said. "If they were from Til'raine, shouldn't there be versions of them in our timelines and other timelines as well?"

Mika said, "Theoretically. In fact, Til'raine still exists in our universe. However, these days, it is called Pandemonium." Mika leaned back, glancing at the figures in the crystal ball momentarily. "The difference, however, is that in the Karzan timeline, the first Urians found a gate to Til'raine and formed a religion around what they found there. That would have been the end of it, though, since the Nameless Ones were still trapped in the Ethereal Plane and able to exert only limited influence over the physical world."

"So what happened to change that?" Kalli wondered.

"A group of Elkandu decided that the Nameless Ones were an immediate threat and went to Til'raine to kill them," Mika explained. "And they were foolish enough to believe the 'God of Peace' when he instructed them to destroy the planet and seal the gate. This was the act of supreme foolishness that allowed them free range into the material plane."

Suzy looked a bit sheepish. "Just wonderful," Kalli muttered.

On the crystal ball, the figures began to move and left the room. "We'll need to go into further detail about what to do with them later. It appears Aviel has decided to do something finally." The three of them sat upright and watched the crystal ball intently as Aviel prepared to open a temporal gateway.


	11. A Change of Seasons

Aviel glanced around at the others. They were finally ready to attempt this. She called it "attempt" in spite of the fact that she had full confidence in their ability to succeed. The ultimate results of such success could not be easily predicted, however. The future was cloudy to her, but through the haze she knew what she must do and let her instinct guide her.

There were nine of them, including herself. The perfect number for doing Time Magic. It was the number of people used in the circle in which the Elkandu performed their first time travel spell, and in fact their first spell together at all, during which they became Elkandu. It was then that they discovered the power of working together, which they so often forgot. Aviel was not using Tinean words this time, however. She did not know the words to any spell that would accomplish precisely what she wanted, not that she frequently used them anyway. So she would have to draw upon her own skill, power, and instinct again to accomplish this. Still, she was fully confident that it would work. She never believed for a moment that they would fail. That confidence was important for doing magic to the fullest potential, even if doubts wriggled in the back of her mind, contemplating every disastrous thing that could possibly go wrong. However, she had assauged what doubts she could, and suppressed the rest, by taking into account what could go wrong and compensating for it. The spell would be perfect.

The circle joined together, and their powers flowed together as one, coming together within Aviel, the focal point of the circle. She took their power and added her own considerable strength to it, and began to channel. Across time and space this portal would reach, and pinpointing the precise location in spacetime for it to come out was important. Too soon, and the presense of Chaos would need to be completely re-established from scratch. Too late, and they would not have time to stop Iyriel before he acted. However, she smiled a bit as she thought about that. Yes, perhaps they did not need to stop him after all. A simple trap spell put in place to foil his attempts, knowing what he was about to try, would suffice.

Having pinpointed the destination, Aviel began weaving in front of the ship, carefully tying cable-thick threads of magic together. A swirling rift slowly began to open before the ship, growing larger and larger as she funneled ever more power into it, carefully holding the magic to keep it stable. Most likely if it collapsed it would just dissipate harmlessly, but sometimes the backlash from losing her concentration could be devastating. Although she had never done anything quite like this before, she still knew how to weave a spell properly. Sidan's training had ensured that.

Then, she suddenly felt something slip up the threads and into her, passing her defenses as if they were nothing. After half a moment, she realized why. Whatever it was, matched her own magical signature. It dawned on her that it was herself from the timeline to which she was opening the gateway. She felt it settle into her, and her power steady and grow stronger as it augmented her talents.

"So you have returned to me," spoke the familiar voice of Tzeentch in her mind. "As I knew you would."

Aviel steadied herself against the sudden, although not entirely unexpected, return of the voices to her mind. Of course, she thought. That Aviel had been a follower of Tzeentch, and having now merged with her, she was again as well. She found herself almost welcoming and embracing the return of Chaos, but at the moment she didn't have much time to dwell on it. She had a spell to complete.

In front of the ship, the portal had grown to enormous proportions, far beyond anything Aviel had previously believed herself capable of, and still she doubted that she could have managed something half so magnificent unaided. Slowly, patiently, she continued to channel energy into it, carefully controlling the web and the power flow with great concentration so that neither destabilized and caused a rather nasty explosion. There was a reason why the traditional parting of the Elkandu was "May your magic never falter."

When the portal was large enough to easily admit the largest of the Chaos ships, Aviel stopped making it larger and began to stabilize it further, carefully tying the weaves together so that it would hold open on its own without being constantly maintained, since she knew it would be difficult to maintain even with assistance for any length of time and that it would be best to have an open passage back and forth between their universes. It was a very useful Elkandu technique to make a weave maintain itself, which many lesser mages had never mastered, as they typically consciously maintained their spells or simply let them degrade over time. Proper enchantments could never actually be done without tying the weave off, although it was easier to tie it to a physical object than to keep it stable in open space, hence why most Elkandu gateways were attached to physical doorways. That, however, had the disadvantage that if the object itself was damaged, the enchantment on it could destabilize and be dispelled. However, when done properly, a free weave would be much more stable and be very difficult to destroy. It simply needed an anchor spell in order to prevent it from wandering around randomly.

Gradually growing weaker from the prolonged exertion, Aviel finished tying off the portal and set the anchor spell in place. Finally, she added the enchantment to prevent tampering, triggering a spell to trap the would-be saboteur in a time bubble until they could be dealt with if they attempted to mess with the gateway by ripping at it with Catalysm or antimagic, conjuring up a dozen nuclear bombs within it, et cetera. She made sure that it could deal with just about anything any fool Elkandu tried to do to it.

After double-checking her work, Aviel cut the power flow to the portal and released the circle. "It is done," she said, before collapsing to the floor drained and weakened. She fell to her knees, trembling and shaking, but she was smiling broadly. She had done it. Even though they had yet to pass through the gateway to ensure they had come out to the correct place, she was fully confident that she had accomplished it perfectly, and that the gateway would hold.

As the fleet began to move through the portal, Aviel took a moment to recover her strength, and slowly stood up again, looking down at herself to assess herself. She slowly realized that her power level had more than doubled. Because of her ascensions, she had known the potential was there and never really filled, since she had not had much time to train it up. But the addition of the alternate soul filled much of that out. Normally, merging two souls from different timelines would only give a temporary increase in power as most Elkandu that would be doing so were already at their maximum potential of power, and without the proper ascensions one soul could only hold so much power before it just could not handle anymore and power would start to bleed out. However, while their cups had been overflowing with power, Aviel was a bucket which had been less than half full, only knowing a small fraction of her potential. As she realized this, she grinned broadly.

Aviel looked ahead to the temporal gateway that they were passing through, smiling again. It was her gateway. Her accomplishment. Few Elkandu could ever claim to have accomplished something so mighty and grand in their lifetimes. She could not help but feel a swell of pride in her own work as she looked upon the carefully-laid threads and perfectly calculated weaves. It was a work of art in and of itself.


	12. Changing the Tapestry One Thread at a Time

"We can't let the Chaos Gods take over either," said a voice from behind Kalli. It was Kanraku. She had momentarily forgotten he was even in the room. "They are no better than the Nameless Ones, even if they are less likely to outright destroy the universe."

"Generally, I would agree with you," Mika said. "However, at the moment, we don't have much choice. They'll take over Linear-Alpha-6 without any problems. Aviel is completely mad and drunk with power. I just hope she stops to help take over first before realizing just what she's capable of."

"Yeah," Kalli said. "If Aviel stops the Nameless Ones, who is going to stop Aviel?"

"I will," Kanraku said stubbornly. "I don't care if she _is_ a Time Mage. I can't let her do that."

"Wow, what is this?" Kall replied. "One of us who isn't a cynical centuries-old person who just wants some semblance of normality again? Suzy, did that power converter you put in actually give him time to actually like, think, and not just sit around eating all the time?"

"Uh, maybe?" Suzy said sheepishly.

"Compartively, the Chaos Gods aren't quite so bad, considering the alternative is the world being destroyed," Kalli said. "Although I would prefer, when the dust settles, that they don't have unequivocal control over the universe."

"The issue with that," Suzy said, "is that most Elkandu are more than happy to follow them."

"Most Elkandu are completely barking mad," Kalli said.

"I'll give you that." Suzy shrugged. "And even the group in Tinemocun won't be very useful once Zuna Taike gets around to massacring them."

"Zuna Taike should be stopped as well," Kanraku said. "What she did to Tinemocun was unacceptable."

"She only attacked them because there were pattern elves there," Suzy said. "And she hated pattern elves."

"And she was driven mad and made extra powerful by the Geneforge," Kalli added.

"And if any one of those things were altered, Zuna Taike would not attack Tinemocun," Suzy finished.

"However," Mika said, "We should probably focus first upon removing the immediate threat of the Nameless Ones. Aviel changed Linear-Alpha-6, but there are still many other timelines in which the Nameless Ones rule over an obliterated universe. And even though she has changed it, and caused a paradox rather than forcing a new timeline to split off, it is still entirely possible that someone in that universe will again get it into their head to try to destroy them, and start the whole business into motion again."

Kanraku gave a grim nod. "I suppose that must be our priority for the moment, I'll give you that. But Aviel will get what's coming to her, sooner or later. She has been a very bad person."

"Although that portal she made was very skillfully done considering she has never done anything like that before, to my knowledge," Suzy commented. "It could use some tweaks in terms of efficiency but all in all it was pretty impressive." People glared at her. "What?" she said innocently.

"But how are we going to get rid of the Nameless Ones if they've been around for a million years?" Kalli wondered.

"That's the question, isn't it," Mika said. "Messing with Til'raine could very well change every universe in existence..."

"So what are we going to do?" Suzy asked.

"At the moment, it's probably best to ensure that no timeline has the Nameless Ones with that level of power currently," Mika said. "It's not a permanent solution, but it will at least ensure us the time to find one before they can start messing with Time themselves."

"And how do we make sure the timelines actually change and don't just split off new timelines?" Suzy wondered.

"Aviel appears to have accomplished it by opening a permanent gateway, redirecting the bridge a few months further into the future," Mika observed. "However, that isn't really a viable option in this case."

"Why can't we just go to all the timelines and warn ourselves not to mess with them?" Kanraku wondered.

"It would not be very effective. Although eventually the number of timelines having that change would exceed the ones without it, the Nameless Ones would catch on to what we were doing fairly quickly, I think," Mika said.

"Wouldn't they realize what we did in Linear-Alpha-3 and what Aviel is doing in 6?" Suzy said.

"Most likely, however those are just two of many timelines," Mika said. "Hmm, if we made the adjustments early enough, in different manners, and never specifically mentioned the Nameless Ones, it might be doable."

"Just let me know where to," Kalli said. "Or when to. And I'll fly us around."

"Let's head for Linear-Alpha-7, day 12 of 4865," Mika said. "We'll see what happens from there."

Kalli nodded and headed for the cockpit to put in the temporal coordinates. She sighed mentally as she had never thought she would be piloting a spaceship across time as well as space, but if it would put the universe back the way it was supposed to be, she wasn't about to start complaining now. She sat down in the pilot's seat and tapped them in, powering up the engines.

In this timeline, their focal point to make the alteration was with Sedder. As he was already intending to take over the universe, they had merely to speak with him and alter his course of action slightly to make sure the same line of events did not occur which led up to the release of the Nameless Ones, without actually explicitly stating so.

"Oh, hi, Suzy," Sedder said as she walked in. "Have you come to join the new Tempest and fight against the foreign gods? I have these nifty pins that make you immune to gods!"

Suzy stared at the silver pin he was offering her and smirked. "You're being played, you know."

"What?" Sedder said, looking at the pin again in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Shazmar's set you up for a good laugh," she said. "The pins only work because he is doing it himself. Shazmar intends you to piss off all the other gods so that you are forced to worship solely him for eternity and be incapable of following any other god because you've pissed them all off severely with your atheism campaign."

Sedder stared at her, her words percolating through his mind. Were she anyone he trusted less, he probably wouldn't believe her, but this was not something he would put past Shazmar as doing. Shazmar did so enjoy messing with people for the fun of it. He plucked the insignia off his chest and said, "Okay, forget this then. Let's go have a beer instead."

They heard an ethereal raspberry as they went to Sedder's office to have a drink. While they were there, Suzy explained briefly about the Chaos Gods that were coming, and suggested that he make sure Sardill didn't do anything to stop them.

"Why would I do that?" Sedder wondered. "These Chaos Gods sound fun." He caught her look. "Oh, this is one of those super-secret Time things again, isn't it. Sure, okay. Sardill's my old buddy, he'll listen."

"Thanks," Suzy said, grinning at him and heading back to the ship.

They continued to hop from timeline to timeline, making small changes that would hopefully have huge affects upon the outcome of the time stream. In different timelines, they killed Iyriel to prevent him from collapsing the bridge, killed Chang to keep him from having the Karzan Galaxy invaded by Chaos, destroyed or sabotaged Pandora Research Facility or otherwise convinced them not to summon Sindri, sabotaged the teleporter that would have brought in Aviel, destroyed or sabotaged the Geneforge on Sucia Island and the one under construction in Muterra, killed Aviel before she could be summoned, rescued Kalli so that she did not fall into the unstable wormhole that took her to the Geneforge planet, and other alterations.

"We should not have killed Iyriel," Kanraku said. "He's a good person, even if he didn't realize what would come about because of his actions."

"Well, let's do something else, then," Suzy said. "We've still got more timelines to fill. We're making headway, though."

So on the next timeline, they simply flew through and kidnapped Iyriel and took him out of the timeline. As they flew out to their basecamp in Linear-Beta, he sat there looking fairly confused. "Uh, what's going on?"

"We're saving you from yourself," Kalli said. "You'll thank us later."

They briefed him on the situation as they assessed what they had accomplished thus far. "A lot of them did split off alternate timelines," Mika said. "However, we're making headway. The amount of temporal space devoted to the Nameless Ones supremacy is decreasing."

"You know, I don't think anyone has ever tried to change the past in quite this manner before," Suzy observed.

"Well, yeah, a couple times, with varying degrees of success," Mika said.

"Wait a minute," Iyriel said. "You're telling me the universe was destroyed, because of _me_?" He found that hard to believe.

"Well, not entirely," Kanraku said, "but it was one factor. The Nameless Ones could not have come in had they not had the opening created by the removal of Chaos. It really wasn't your fault. You didn't realize that you were stopping one evil only to allow in a more immediate one. I don't really think Chaos taking over would have been such a great future either, but at the moment, preferable to the entire universe being destroyed. We'll work on getting rid of Chaos once we've made sure the Nameless Ones aren't about to do anything precipitous."

"We should go back to where I ended up three thousand years in the past in the Warhammer universe," Suzy said, "so I can convince myself of what to do differently."

"Oh, no you don't," Kalli said. "I hate flying through that universe. That place is crazy."

"I'm sure the ship can handle it," Suzy said. "I have equipped it with trifurcate quantum shields and redundant engine couplings to ensure maximal temporal protection and maneuverability--"

"Even if I had any idea what you just said, I still don't want to go there," Kalli insisted.

"Oh, fine, I'll just go myself, then," Suzy said. "Mika?" He nodded. "We'll be back momentarily."

Suzcecoz appeared on a Chaos ship near her past self. "Hi there," Future Suzy said.

"Er, hi," Past Suzy replied. "Who are you?"

"I'm you."

"Well, I can see that," Past Suzy said impatiently.

"I'm you from the future," Future Suzy said.

"I'm already from the future."

"I'm from further in the future."

"Oh," Past Suzy said. "So what are you doing here?"

"It's a long story."

"And why aren't you Chaos?"

"That's also a long story," Future Suzy said impatiently. "For starters, you have approximately three hours to prepare for a fair-sized battle," Future Suzy said.

"It won't matter anyway due to entropy, won't it?" Past Suzy asked.

"Actually, that's what I needed to tell you. It _will_ matter. It _is_ possible to change the past. Keep this in mind. It's important. Good luck, and kick some ass."

"Right, I'm sure I can take them all singlehandedly," Past Suzy commented.

Future Suzy waved and signalled Mika to return to base camp seconds after leaving. One back on board the Darkstar, she said, "Okay, let's check up on the results of that alteration." She proceeded to do some scans of the timeline. "Hmm. Apparently, I drastically changed the outcome of that battle. They still got beaten back eventually, but did considerable damage and far more of them survived. Considering nearly none of them had survived before, I'd call that a reasonable difference."

"That's nice," Kalli said, smirking. "What about the Nameless Ones?"

"Scanning," Suzy said, peering at the ball. "It appears they have no chance to take over in that timeline and the ones springing off from it. Apparently, I decided to open a temporal rift and invade the Elkandu Universe thousands of years before they were prepared for it. And it's caused another paradox, too. Man, three thousand years ago... The Elkandu as we know them didn't even exist back then. Khasadala Seer had not even yet been born."

"Okay, so what do we do next?" Kalli asked.

"I'll do some more scans of the timelines for the optimal course of action and analyze the effects of the recent paradoxen," Mika said, heading off to do that.

Kalli glanced over toward Suzcecoz. "Why are you looking so smug?"

"I knew I could take them all on singlehandedly," she said. "Well, even if it did get me killed. A couple times."

Kalli rolled her eyes, and went to get some espresso.


	13. Insert Terrible Pun Here Involving Hell

"Where in Hell are we?" Abram said, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the glaring sun and gaze across the endless desert sands.

"I have no idea," Emily replied. "But it's preferable to a dungeon cell. Right?"

"That's debatable." He glanced over at her. The silver talisman shaped like a broken skull still hung around her neck, the symbol of the High Priest of the Nameless Ones. Or perhaps High Priestess, in her case. "Why are you still wearing that talisman?"

"I don't know," Emily said with a shrug.

"Well, get rid of it," Abram said. "It's bothering me."

"Meh. You just don't like seeing it on somebody else," Emily retorted.

"No, it's just bothering me to know how our gods betrayed us and destroyed everything we had worked for to benefit themselves, even though I have no idea how in the Hell they benefit from having no followers in the first place, considering I had always thought gods needed worshippers in order to survive and gain their powers. It is a constant reminder of how the world suddenly turned upside down and nothing even comes close to making any sort of sense anymore, and everything I had believed in for most of my life has turned out to be nothing but lies and deceptions."

"You sound surprised," Emily said. "You were the one who chose to worship the gods of death, though."

"Emily," Abram said slowly, trudging through the sand as he stared at the horizon. "It isn't just symbolic, you know. It's a conduit of their power. Who knows what they could do to you further because of it?"

"Abram, just because we happen to share some genetic material does not make you my father," Emily said impatiently.

"I'm the closest thing you'll ever have, you know."

"You also tried to sacrifice me on an altar," Emily snapped.

"Well, you were being a bitch," Abram replied.

"And you were being annoying preaching about how I still worshipped the Nameless Ones against my will because I still bore their symbols, even though I had chosen to follow the Chaos Gods instead."

"You still are, and by extension, you still do, whether you want to or not," Abram said. "And at this point, I'm highly doubting you would want to, considering the fact that they killed you and threw you in Hell."

Emily stared down at her skull talisman hanging around her neck. Even though she knew it was made of silver, it seemed to reflect little light in the harsh glare of the sun, remaining dark and tarnished rather than bright and shiny. It was something she had been immensely proud of it at one point, and coveted as the symbol of the highest power attainable by a Urian Death Priest. Now, however, she could only sigh and feel a twinge of guilt. Silently cursing Adrienna for giving her "normal" emotions, she pulled the chain from her neck and held it out in front of her, the broken skull grinning at her as it dangled in the sun.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Just toss it away, bury it or something!" Abram said.

Emily looked over toward him. "You," she said flatly, "are not Abram."

"What are you talking about? Of course I am."

Emily brandished the talisman in front of her. "Reveal your true nature, Sansarus!"

For a moment, Abram's form flickered and a terrible, monstrous visage was superimposed upon him. Then he collapsed, and an ethereal wail cursing Emily could be heard echoing into nothingness. Emily went over to Abram's semi-conscious form, checking on him, certain that it was really him this time, the talisman still in her hand. She put her other hand on his forehead. He was hot and feverish.

"You're burning up," she murmured. "Are you alright, Abram? Can you stand?"

"I--I think so," Abram said quietly, pushing himself to his feet slowly with Emily's help. "It is well that you saw through the trickery of the God of Subterfuge."

Emily gave a grim nod, looking down at the talisman in her hand. "I think, if they want me to get rid of this, that I should probably hang onto it for the moment." She put it back around her neck, sighing softly as she felt its dull weight hanging heavy against her chest. "We've got to get out of here somehow. But while we walk, I want you to tell me everything you know about this talisman."

She struck off toward what appeared to be mountains in the distance. Abram, walking beside her as quickly as he could manage, said, "It is said to have been passed down from each High Priest to his successor for many generations. Legend has it that it was given to the first High Priest by the Nameless Ones themselves, and that they infused it with their power, allowing the High Priest to call upon the gods by speaking their names."

"I don't really think I want to be doing that," Emily muttered.

"I'm not sure you'll have much choice," Abram commented. "Magic and power may get us out of here, but do you have the power and skill to rise from the dead and resurrect souls into life again? Your pride will not help you here. We _are_ at their mercy, but you have the power to command them."

"Bah. Would they really listen?" Emily said. "They did drag me here in the first place, after all."

"Yes," Abram said. "But did you command them to stop?"

"No," Emily said. "I'm just a mortal. Human! How can I command a god?"

"Because of the talisman," Abram said. "You saw what happened when he tried to trick you. You would think that you were making mere suggestions and that they could choose not to do them. But while they may not always like it, they _must_ do what you command. But beware of their wrath if you try to force too much upon them. There are legends about High Priests who stepped too far beyond their bounds who were consumed by their greed and lust for power."

"I am not too sure that the situation could get overmuch worse than us being dead and the universe being destroyed," Emily said wryly. "Very well, then. I will do what I must." Emily touched the talisman with a hand and said in a clear, commanding voice, "I call upon Andron, God of Mercy. I wish myself and Abram to be restored to life and returned to the physical realm!"

A wispy form of ghostly white crossed her eyes for a moment, and then darkness encompassed her. When her vision cleared, she found herself laying in mossy ground, a crescent moon hanging between the trees above her, and a cool night breeze brushing past her face. She sat up quickly and saw Abram likewise laying nearby, and felt a rush of relief flood through her. Unable to help herself, she scrambled over and hugged him.

"Mmph," Abram said, surprised. "What was that for?"

"Thank you," Emily said. "Without you, I might have never gotten out of there..."

"Well, at least this beats the desert," Abram commented, standing up and brushing himself off. "Now what?"

"I hadn't really thought that far ahead," Emily said. "I'm not about to go demanding that they bring everyone else back to life, although the universe is going to get awfully boring if we're the only ones still alive. And don't even get any notions into your head about the two of us repopulating humanity."

Abram smirked. "I wasn't thinking that, dear." He glanced up toward the moon and the stars. "Perhaps the first priority is to figure out where we are, then."

"We need a spaceship, and supplies, and--" Emily began.

"Emily, Emily, Emily," Abram cut her off. "Such mundane thoughts? I think, really, our first priority, is to decide upon what goal we will attempt to work toward."

Emily sighed and sat down. "The universe has been destroyed. Everyone is dead. What in the name of Hell _can_ we do about it?"

"Well, I'm hardly the first person to be advocating saving the universe," Abram said. "Although it's going to get awfully boring without anyone around to annoy, torment, convert, torture, slaughter, or otherwise mess around with."

"I don't think there's really any argument that we need to do something, somehow," Emily said. "And we've got all of eternity to think of what! I'm sure my enhanced physiology will be able to sort out whichever of these berries happen to be poisonous!" she said, plucking one at random and popping it in her mouth. "Nasty."

Abram rolled her eyes. "At the risk of being smited, however fun it may be for the Nameless Ones to torment every soul in the universe for eternity, I don't really think this is an ideal situation for all those concerned."

"Do you really think they'd just resurrect every living being in the universe?" Emily asked.

"Yes," Abram said. "They must do what you command. They would just be really, really pissed off about it. And could very likely just kill them all again anyway for the fun of it."

"Abram," Emily asked, "how powerful were the Nameless Ones before this all went down?"

"Just as powerful as they are now," Abram said. "However, they were confined to the Ethereal Plane and were unable to directly influence the physical realm on their own. Only their priests, the Urians, and especially their High Priest, could command them and thus allow them to influence the material plane. That's why I was so shocked when you told me that they had physically manifested."

"I want a ship," Emily said. "I think better in the cockpit." She peered about the vicinity, as if hoping her Darknova would magically appear. "Actually, this planet seems kind of familiar. I seem to recall having been here before dying. They must have just put me back to where I was before. Now, where did I park that ship... Ah, there it is."

They boarded up into Emily's Darknova and took off from the planet's surface and into open space. Abram settled into the co-pilot's seat, straightening his robes self-consciously. "Right. Now we have a ship," Abram said, stating the obvious. "Where are we flying to?"

"Second star on the right, and straight on until morning."

"Are those the scientific coordinates?" Abram commented.

"No. Shut up."

For fear that the Nameless Ones would be listening, as they always seemed to be, Emily did not voice what she really had in mind. As far out as it sounded, the only real solution was to change the past. She had no idea just how to go about this, but having watched too many science fiction holovids, she intended to at least try. She switched to fully manual control, and trusting in her instincts and ability as the best pilot in the galaxy (not that this was difficult, being the only pilot in the galaxy at the moment), she proceeded to fly toward the sun.

Abram realized that she probably had something in mind other than simply killing them again, and kept quiet to allow her to concentrate on whatever it was. Emily proceeded to draw in close to the sun, accelerating to the speed of light as she attempted to slingshot around the sun and into the past. Voices and images flashed past her eyes, and all faded to whiteness.


	14. Through a Thousand Eyes

Hawthorne stopped slaughtering innocent civilians for a moment, blood still dripping from her sword and armor, and glanced about. "Sindri?" she called out. "Did you sense that? I felt something weird..." However, Sindri was not there, and her rage was rapidly leaving her. "Sindri, where are you?"

Frowning, Hawthorne put away her sword and proceeded to scan the area for Sindri or any trace of residue that he might have teleported out. However, unable to locate anything after several minutes, she thought that was odd and decided to head back to Shieltas. Maybe Suzcecoz had seen him, or perhaps she had beamed him back to headquarters. She stepped into Suzy's office and began, "Hey, Suzy--" but then noticed Suzy wasn't there. "Hmm, maybe she's working on something somewhere else. Computer, locate Suzcecoz."

"Searching," the computer said obediently, listing a progress meter and failed locations as Suzcecoz was not found in the most likely places for her to be. After a minute of searching, the computer replied, "Suzcecoz Ilawi not found."

Hawthorne frowned again, then asked, "Did you search the alternate universes as well?"

"Negative. Do you wish to add them to the search?"

"Yes," Hawthorne said impatiently.

"Resuming search," the computer said. Hawthorne sighed softly and replicated a carbonated beverage to quaff while it continued with the search, leaning against a wall which was primarily mostly empty solely for the purpose of being leaned against. She seemed to remember something about having been killed, but it was fading like a strange dream. Perhaps she was merely being delusional. After several minutes, the computer finally said again, "Suzcecoz Ilawi not found."

"What?" Hawthorne said. "Where in the Abyss could she be?"

"Suzcecoz Ilawi is not in the Abyss."

Hawthorne glared at the computer for a moment and resisted the urge to smash it. "Computer, locate Sindri," Hawthorne grated instead. She finished up her soda pop, let out a belch, and shoved the empty cup into the disposal slot for recycling. She did a scan of her own while she waited, assuring herself that Keolah and Rhuan were at least where they were supposed to be.

Several minutes later, the computer said, "Sindri not found."

"This is very weird," Hawthorne muttered, leaving the office and heading downstairs to find Keolah. She knew they would have to be somewhere insanely well-warded for Suzy's computer to be unable to locate them, as it could penetrate most wards. However, the computer still had difficulty penetrating the Ethereal Plane, and so Keolah might be able to find them where it failed.

Meanwhile, the effects of the paradox were being felt elsewhere as well. A small group of Tau suddenly found themselves alone in a Darknova fighter they did not know how to fly. Luckily for them, they were able to voice-activate the autopilot, which landed them more or less safely on the nearest planet, Wegana. Nearby, Theodore in his own Darknova picked them up on his scanners, as well as the Chaos fleet moving through already.

Iyriel desparately tried to stop them somehow. However, when he reached the gateway, he suddenly found himself frozen in time. Theodore, sensing something was wrong, flew in after him, avoiding the Chaos ships with some fancy flying. He flew in close to the gateway and snagged Iyriel up into his ship and flew off post-haste, setting off for the nearest planet, Wegana, and landing near where his scanners picked up the other Darknova and recognized it as Kalli's.

However, over in Torn Elkandu, Sheniro's situation was considerably less hectic than theirs, and he was able to grasp his strange fleeting memories more firmly than they had. Even if he could not keep hold of the details for very long, he held firmly to the essense of them and set out immediately to find the other members of Pyroluminescence. As it turned out, they were looking for him as well, and they ran into one another in the Exploding Gnome Tavern.

"You all sensed it too?" Zelen said, a bit incredulously. "I had thought that surely only I would have, being the only inborn Time Mage among us."

"I don't really remember much," Sheniro admitted. "It's fading fast, like a waking dream."

"I do, though," Zelen said. "It's clear as day."

"So what happened?" Elgar asked.

"My best guess is that it appears to have been a paradox," Zelen said. "Since you all don't seem to remember the future that we just narrowly avoided, I'll summarize." The others sat down around a table to listen. "Sheniro went first to the Dragon Ball universe, where he started performing. Not long after that, the bridge to the Warhammer universe was destroyed and, sometime after that, Sardill removed Chaos from the universe. However, by that point the rest of us had realized we were terrible at actually fighting, and that we were meant to be together, and we rejoined Sheniro and got the band together again. A couple months after that, the universe was utterly destroyed and everyone was killed by the gods of death, the Nameless Ones."

Sheniro started at the tabletop as Zelen finished speaking, and said slowly, "Our true power is through working together. Separated, we are but mediocre mages, but together, we are Pyroluminescence. We are the greatest."

He had known what his true calling was and what he intended to do after having spoken with Sindri, and learned about the Word Bearers. However, as powerful as he was on his own--and he _was_ one of the most powerful Speakers alive--with the rest of the band, he was unstoppable. Music was a tool, and a powerful one, one which most people upon hearing it did not even realize what he was doing until it was far too late to do anything about it. Merely speaking, he was not half so powerful, and people would figure out what he was up to much sooner. Elkandu were notoriously wary of Speakers, to the point where he had had to conceal his true power his entire life for fear of being killed simply for being one.

"Yes," Zelen agreed. "We were meant to be together. Much as some of us would like to think otherwise." He gave a look toward Karn, who glared sulkily.

"A reunion concert," Sheniro said. "We will show the universe our true power."

"And if anyone gets killed in the pyrotechnics, it wasn't my fault," Karn said.

They filed out of the tavern and set up their instruments in Thought's Square. Normally, they played in Fire's Square, but today was a special day. Today was the day that they had gotten a second chance, beyond all hope. Around them, mages were milling about in confusion, many of them remembering snatches of the future they no longer had to face. Arguments were starting to break out, and many of those who had at least some Time Magic remembered things more clearly, and some of them did not like ending up Chaos again.

Sheniro smiled to himself and pulled out his microphone, tossing back his long, pink hair, and began to sing, the band joining in behind him on cue. The people milling about stopped what they were doing and went silent as they began to listen. The power of the four members of Pyroluminescence joined together in Sheniro, as it always did, pulsating through him and strengthening his already-strong magic. Today, they played with renewed vigor and a sense of purpose, and he could feel that echoing through his veins. Even if they did not fully remember all that Zelen had told them, they still held feelings of it, and knew that they were always meant to be together.

As the band played, the crowd calmed somewhat, and began to cheer in excitement at their music. When the song was over, there were no more arguments or doubts. Sheniro grinned a bit, and they teleported to Water's Square to perform another song and do the same there, and Soul's Square after that. Elkandu were fickle at times, but they just needed a little encouragment and they would see the proper course. And none of them could resist the power of Pyroluminescence.

Back in Castle Shieltas, Keolah shook her head and said to Hawthorne, "I can't find them, either. Let's go find Rhuan. Maybe he'll have some better idea what just happened. I have a feeling it was a paradox. I seem to have memories of events that did not happen. But that in and of itself does not really explain their disappearance, although I don't doubt there is a connection."

Rhuan, however, was shortly returning to Shieltas himself, and appeared as they were preparing to go find him. He looked fairly grim. "Rhuan!" Hawthorne said, running over to hug him. "What in the Abyss is going on here?"

"There has been a paradox," Rhuan said, then explained briefly about what he remembered of the future as it would have been. Hawthorne frowned deeply at the description of the Nameless Ones, as well as how Chaos would have been removed mere days after she had finally decided to join up.

"But where are Suzy and Sindri?" Hawthorne said. "They just... disappeared!"

"I don't know," Rhuan said. "But I would guess if you cannot find them, they must be in another timeline." He looked off thoughtfully. "I will see if I can find them."

Keolah said, "Also, I detected the Chaos fleet having crossed the bridge and rapidly approaching. I also picked up a good deal of Time Magic in their vicinity. A temporal gateway."

"That would explain the paradox," Hawthorne said. "Is Zso with them?"

Keolah said, "That guy you met back on that other planet? I think so. You wanna go find out what's going on on their end?"

Hawthorne nodded. "Maybe they'll have some answers. Coordinates?" Keolah tepped her the coordinates, and Hawthorne nodded again and teleported away.

Keolah glanced over to Rhuan, who was concentrating on Time-Seeking alternate timelines in hopes of locating Suzcecoz. Finally he said, "I think I have found a Suzcecoz matching the proper temporal signature. Will you be alright here?"

"I'm fine," Keolah said. "I'll try to keep an eye on things around here."

Rhuan nodded, and said, "Very well. I will return shortly." He vanished in a flash of blue Time Magic, crossing time and space to where he had detected Suzcecoz.

Keolah, alone now, waited for a few seconds as if expecting him to return within the minute, then finally shrugged and headed up toward Suzy's office to see how things unfolded. She set several screens to monitor activitied in Torn Elkandu, Tinemocun, and other important locations, while tracking the fleet's movements through the Ethereal Plane as best as she could herself. She relaxed to Pyroluminescence's music, leaning back in Suzy's comfortable office chair, and wondered just when somebody would try to get her to join Chaos as well. Perhaps they were all afraid of her. No matter, she thought. What would happen, would happen. Or would not happen, as the case may be. Damned paradoxes.


	15. On the Brink of War

As the fleet arrived in orbit of Torn Elkandu, a small planet conveniently located in the Ethereal Plane directly adjacent to Lezaria, Hawthorne appeared on the bridge in front of Zso. "Yes, what is it?" Zso said, looking rather distracted in dealing with the ship's orbital status. He didn't seem to have recognized who she was yet.

Hawthorne said, "Zso? What in the Abyss is going on?" He spun on his heel, not accustomed to being addressed by his first name nor by a female voice. Hawthorne grin-smirked at him. "Hi. I trust my presense was sorely missed around here?" she said her smirk broadening.

Zso studied her for a moment, masked visage a blank. "Ah, Hawthorne. We've been granted access to the Elkandu universe by Aviel. Apparently she and Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons Legion figured out a way to rip holes in the Warp to reach different universes, not merely through the one we know. You did miss out on the absolute and wanton destruction of a loyalist planet, yes."

"Yeah, that might explain the paradox. Rhuan says the future changed."

"The future is always changing, it doesn't take a sorcerer to figure that out."

"Eh," Hawthorne says. "I was busy slaughtering random innocent civilians when this all went down. Something weird happened and I could remember things that didn't happen, and then when I looked around Sindri was just _gone_ , and Suzy's computer can't find him."

"Aviel mentioned that everyone left on this side of the rift was, er, removed of their unholy powers," Zso said, "I bet that was a painful experience for Sindri."

"No, that didn't happen this time," Hawthorne insisted. "The future changed. Well, I suppose what would be the future for us... the past for you. It _changed_. Whatever Aviel did, she managed to change time. She caused a paradox." Zso just stood there. "Not that I'm complainnig. I very much prefer being alive."

"I'm a killer. I don't understand this. Put it in laymen's terms."

"Those were laymen's terms. If I were trying to be scientific I'd be spouting some nonsensical technobabble about inverse power couplings and remodulating the main ... whatever the hell," Hawthorne sputtered.

"So, the future for you is the past for 'us', whoever 'we' entail...and this changed somehow."

"I don't fully understand what happened myself," Hawthorne admitted. "I just know that I'm alive even though I vaguely remember at some point being not-Chaos and later being dead because I'm a reckless moron that can't stay out of a fight even if I know it's suicidal."

"What exactly did this Rhuan do after all this happened?" Zso asked.

"He went to find Suzcecoz, who he said was in another timeline."

"And what does he hope to do when he finds her?"

"I have no idea," Hawthorne replied. "Knowing him, have sex."

"And what in the bloody Warp are we going to do here now that we've arrived? I _hope_ there's someone to kill here..."

"Oh, sure, there's plenty of someones to kill here."

"Good," said Zso.

"I was just amusing myself killing several dozen someones this morning," Hawthorne went on. "And there's the Army of Order. And there's _Sedder_. And all those damned pattern elves..."

The comm crackled. "Primarch Sahaal," a low voice snarled.

"Yes, Despoiler?" Zso said. "What are your orders?" Hawthorne peered over to the thing making the noise.

"You are to move the Night Haunter and your fleet to these coordinates and collaborate with the Plaguespawn and Primarch Typhus' fleet. Your two Legions are charged with the initial invasion of this world."

"There's people in Torn Elkandu who _aren't_ Chaos yet?" Hawthorne said.

"Hmmm..." Zso pondered. "Despoiler, have your astropaths run a scan of the planet's inhabitants so we know what we are facing?"

"Are you _scared_ , Night Lord?" the comm crackled.

Hawthorne rolled her eyes a bit. Zso said, "No, Despoiler, but I percieve someone else has already brought this world under our sway." He covered the comm-vox. "I swear I'm going to murder him some day."

"If I don't get to him first. I haven't even met him yet and I already don't like him," Hawthorne muttered.

A moment later, the vox static cleared. "By the dark ones, the planet already belongs to Chaos!"

"What now, Despoiler?" Zso asked, rolling his eyes.

Hawthorne said, "I'd say it was probably Sindri's doing, but he spent much of his time in Torn Elkandu not actually in Torn Elkandu. More likely, it was Pyroluminescence."

"That band that Sindri so despised are minions of Chaos?" Zso wondered incredulously.

Hawthorne nodded. "Apparently. But even before then they had a way of making people more... open to suggestion. Torn Elkandu is more or less the headquarters of the Elkandu, because of its convenient location and the Nexus. It's the 'center of the universe', they say, and most Elkandu have contact there at some point or another."

"And we control it," Zso said. Hawthorne grinned. Zso chuckled. "Ok, where's the next best place to siege?"

"Well, there's the primary Elkandu worlds. Lezaria, Mezulbryst, Khiszalr.. well, Khizsalr's already being 'sieged' by some Orks and a plague, but anyway..."

"Orks?" Zso wondered.

"Yeah. Hell if I know how they got there."

Zso shrugged. "Which would you recommend?"

"But nobody gives a damn about Khizsalr, so nobody's bothered doing anything about it yet. Actually, the three worlds people usually give any of a damn about, are Lezaria, Mezulbryst, and Wilderplane. And, occasionally, Corstad, but only when they want to go shopping. The Army of Order's headquarters is on Lezaria. Which is, conveniently, right on top of us, in the physical realm directly above Torn Elkandu."

Zso said, "Well then, perhaps we should give these coordinates to Abaddon so he can claim to have found them himself and we'll get this ball rolling."

Hawthorne sniggered. "Is he really that much of an asshole?" Zso's helmeted head nodded. Hawthorne asked, "Why don't you just kill him then?"

"A few of the other Primarchs and I are consolodating power against him."

"There's no problem that can't be solved by hacking it into bloody pieces," Hawthorne declared, entirely ignoring the fact that she could not deal with the Nameless Ones in that manner.

"You'll find it un-ironic that Angron, the leader of the World Eaters, the Khornate devotees, are one of the forces we've garnered."

Hawthorne chuckled softly. "If it were me, I would've tried to kill him ages ago. But patience was never one of my strong suits."

Zso went on, "He, myself, and Lorgar form the base of power so far... we know we won't be able to get the Black Legion to turn, since they're Abaddon's, but we're working on Typhus, Magnus, and the others."

A moment later, the comm crackled, "Warriors of Chaos! Your allmighty Despoiler has discovered a world ripe for the taking! Set a course for these coordinates and prepare for battle!"

"Meh, leave the politics to Keolah," Hawthorne said. "Just point me to the killing."

"You'll find yourself much more at home with Angron, be that the case," Zso commented. "The Night Lords sew terror and confusion, the World Eaters do just that."

"Where?" Hawthorne wondered, perking an eyebrow in interest.

"The Bloodwrath is Angron's flagship," Zso explained. "They'll probably attack you on sight, so be ready to prove yourself a bit."

Hawthorne smirked, and with a flick of her wrist, her armor unfolded and covered her body. It was still covered in fairly fresh blood from the poor random mensch she was killing this morning. Zso laughed. He walked over to a chamber and pressed some buttons. It began to glow.

"That's the teleporter. I'll tell Angron a guest is coming."

"Okie-dokie." She shoved on her helmet and peered at the thing momentarily.

Zso adjusts a knob a bit, and then ticked the vox on. "Brother Angron, do you read?"

"Yesssssssss, brother Sahaal?" a wet and sinister voice replied. Hawthorne glanced over toward Zso, cocking her head a bit.

"I'm sending over a mutual friend, also a devotee of Khorne. Try not to lose too many Berserkers to her."

Hawthorne grinned innocently. The response was only maniacal laughter. The light on the teleporter blinked green, indicating that it was ready for transport. Hawthorne waved a bit and stepped in. A coruscating purple energy field envelops her. Disorentation... blurry world... cessile movement... clarity. Hawthorne thought to herself momentarily that she rather prefered the Nexus.

The bridge she now stood upon was stained with random hues of red. A massive armored figure sat facing toward her, and just as she regained her senses, two axe-wielding similarly armored figures rush her, spouting insane prayers to Khorne. Hawthorne grinned broadly, drew her sword in one swift movement, and danced into the fight. They screamed in unison, "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!" and rushed her with chain axes screaming. A single swing from a chainaxe clipped her thigh, cutting the armor and letting forth a spray of blood. Hawthorne returned the favor with a sword through the chest, then swung the body off her crackling blade and into the other Berserker, whom she leapt at and decapitated deftly.

The armored figure sitting on the brass chair applauded, thick gauntleted hands clapping together in a hollow clang. "Well done, well done...I see Sahaal does not wish to waste my time with a whelp."

Hawthorne chuckles softly. Once she was fairly certain nobody else is going to attack her, she put away her sword and pulls off her helmet again, giving a shake of her head, black hair falling around pointed elvish ears.

"I am Angron, Chosen of Khorne. You are?" He looked her over. "A woman, for one." He noted, eyebrows raising.

"Lariole Chelseer, of the Children of the Dragon's Blood, but most people call me Hawthorne." She grinned at him.

"Hawthorne... splendid. I have need of an Aspiring Champion, and I believe you may fit the requisites."

"What might those be?"

"The warriors of Khorne are fierce and maniacal, but left unchecked they will ravage and destroy themselves. With a leader that can quell dissent with a single stroke of a blade, the World Eaters Legion can be a fearsome and controlled force." Hawthorne grinned again. "You need but direct a force of around one hundred Chaos Marines, Berserkers and Horrors as an Aspiring Champion. Once you have proven yourself, I will promote you to the rank of Champion with all the benefits." Hawthorne gave a short nod. "If they begin to turn on one another, no quarter is to be taken. Kill those that would kill each other. Do you accept the duties, Hawthorne, Daughter of the Dragon's Blood?"

"Certainly. Killing people's what I do best."

"Kneel." Angron pulled out a warped and curved sword. Hawthorne did as directed. He places the flat of the blade on each shoulderplate, and twisting runes and sigils spread down on to the plates and on to the helmet. Her vision tinted slightly red. "Bless and give your newest servant the powers of untold slaughter, Oh great Khorne!" he intoned. "Arise, Aspiring One. The god of slaughter demands sacrifice."

She stood up again, grinning broadly. Four Berserkers rushed into the room from an anteroom, screaming and wailing at the top of their lungs. Two of them actually went for her, one went for another one of them and the fourth went for Angron himself. Hawthorne was quick to defend herself. Angron lifts his Power Fist, grabbed the head and upper torso of the one rushing him, and with metal creaking and cries of anguish and rage, crushed the chest cavity and skull of the Berserker, then drops the body noncholantly. Hawthorne quickly dispatched the men attacking her. The runes on the armor glowed, and the freshly spilled blood lifted from the floor and seeped into her armor, filling the runic symbols and give her a major rush.

"Excellent. You have been accepted by Khorne." Hawthorne grinned broadly. Most people's first words were something like "mama" or "papa". Hawthorne's first word was "sword". Angron said, "Now we move to this new planet, to bring devastation and death unlike anything the populace has ever seen."

Hawthorne said wryly, "Oh, good, I always like a good challenge. It'll be difficult to top the Planar Wars."


	16. The Vicious Attack of the Stealth Smut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dub-con in this chapter.

Kalli sat in the research lab, drinking yet another cup of espresso, as Suzy worked on something or other nearby. Mika entered the room and said, "I think I may have found a good course of action. However, we have another anomalous reading. Although Sindri and Manasa escaped the apocalypse, they are being fairly quiet. But Emily and Abram, however, are not so much so."

Kalli quirked an eyebrow. "Emily survived? How?"

"By watching too many Star Trek movies," Mika replied. "She has, oddly enough, similar goals in mind, apparently, but her actions may run afoul of ours if we don't coordinate. We'll have to go meet up with them and get on the same page."

"Alright, I'll set a course for their current location," Kalli said. "Coordinates?"

"Parallel-Epsilon-5, year 4387, day 86," Mika replied. "Planet Hasaris."

Kalli said, "Right, then." She headed for the cockpit, put in the coordinates, powered up the engines, and took off, piloting the ship to the designated spacetime location.

Emily's Darknova was parked on a floating island high above the misty surface of the planet Hasaris. Abram stepped out of the hatch and peered about, and wondered, "Where in the Hell have you taken us now?"

"Not Hell, thankfully," Emily said, standing out beside him. "Although where and when, I have no idea."

"What do you mean, when?" Abram demanded.

"Well, I was attempting to travel into the past."

"Where did you learn how to time travel?" Abram wondered.

"I saw it in a holovid once," Emily admitted sheepishly.

Abram just stared at her. "And we're still _alive_?"

"Er, apparently?" she said. "This doesn't look like Hell at any rate." She peered up toward the sky, where a large metallic object was quickly approaching. "That almost looks like a Karzan ship... But it's no design I've ever seen."

Emily waited warily as the ship landed on the floating chunk of rock several meters from Emily's Darknova, alert for any signs of attack. However, much to her surprise, it was Kalli who stepped out of the strange-yet-familiar spaceship. She stared over at the woman who was, genetically speaking, probably the closest thing she had to a grandmother.

"Kalli?" Emily said, approaching the woman. "What are you doing here? Wherever here might be."

Kalli glanced over at Abram questioningly, who was standing there quietly in his Urian robes. She said, "I'll brief the two of you on board," she gestured at them to follow and headed back onto the ship and toward the research lab.

Emily followed, staring at everything around her. Abram likewise followed, primarily staring at the ground in front of him. They went in and sat down near Mika and Suzcecoz. Kalli grabbed a cup of espresso and plopped down in a seat across from them.

"Although I must congratulate you on your clever use of unorthodox methods of time travel," Suzy said, "We may need to coordinate a bit here. I spoke with Rhuan from Linear-Alpha-6 a few hours ago, and we're attempting to work things out and re-establish some semblance of real-time."

"You mean that crazy hair-brained suicidal scheme of hers actually worked?" Abram said incredulously.

"Yes, we are, in fact, five hundred years in the past," Suzy said. "Not that that's really relevant, since this ship is equipped with a multi-phasic temporal translocational warp drive, anyway."

"I am not even going to pretend to understand what you just said," Emily smirked.

"The ship can travel through time as well as space," Kalli translated. "With better accuracy than your methods. Although they did get you out of a bad situation and allowed you to avoid the paradocii that have come upon Linear-Alpha since then."

"Linear-Alpha?" Emily wondered.

"The primary timeline. The one we're from. The one you'd generally call the 'real' one."

"Oh, okay."

"We have been making attempts at changing the course of time in order to prevent the Nameless Ones from breaking free of their prison in the Ethereal Plane and wrecking havoc on the universe," Suzy explained. "And I don't really care if they're listening right now or not. They can't do anything to us here and now. We have, however, made some headway into the matter. We have altered a number of timelines that would have otherwise led to that result, and hopefully will now be able to finalize the alteration and remove the last of them from the timestream."

Emily gave a nod and said, "I don't care what side you're on. It's a boring universe if everyone is _dead_. There's nothing left to _do_."

"My thoughts, pretty much," Suzy said. "I don't anticipate spending the rest of my existence in an alternate timeline, where the Nameless Ones may or may not ever manage to break free. And where we may not be precisely 'safe' anyway... It would really suck to have the universe abruptly cease to exist entirely."

"I can't see how even they would benefit from that," Emily commented. "But they're insane."

"Sanity is a rare commodity in the universe, I have found," Kalli replied, looking at her strangely. "I don't recall you as ever being completely sane yourself."

"Discussing people's relative sanity," Mika said, "While an endless source of entertainment for all involved, is beyond the scope of what we need to accomplish here in the immediate future. I will coordinate with Kalli on our next course of action. For the moment, the rest of you should just stay out of trouble for a little bit. And do try to actually stay out of trouble, instead of doing what people normally do when asked to stay out of trouble, which is to make the situation worse."

Emily smirked broadly. "Yes... I will be sure to restrict my demonic sacrifices to goats and telemarketers, and try not to kill anyone important."

After Kalli and Mika went out to the cockpit to fly around through time a bit more, Theodore showed up in the research lab and began to randomly play with the train set. Emily ceased particularly caring about what happened to her ship, since she was at least around living, breathing people again and her mad gods had not physically manifested in the material plane to slaughter every living, breathing person around.

Abram muttered, "I don't think the gods will be happy about this."

Emily said, "All things considered, making the Nameless Ones happy is not my highest priority at the moment." She sighed, leaning back in her chair. "I know there'll be Hell to pay later. But for the sake of the universe, I believe it is worth it."

"When did you turn benevolent?" Abram said. Suzcecoz, ignoring them, was working on some techno-gizmo at the moment. "You could have anything in the universe that you want. All you have to do are say the words."

"Don't tempt me, Abram," Emily snapped.

"Do you ask that we leave the mind of this follower alone?" said a voice from Abram, in a tone that sounded nothing like Abram. "Will you demand that of us? He is still ours, after all. We may not be able to touch the others here, but we can touch him."

Emily felt a cold chill come over her. "Why are you doing this?" she whispered. Suzcecoz and Theodore, on the other side of the room, did not appear to be paying attention to their conversation, engrossed in what each of them was doing.

"How long do you think you can resist the pull of this power?" the Nameless One possessing Abram whispered.

"What is the use of power if there is none alive to use it upon?" Emily replied. "Death for all living beings? What is the point in this?"

Abram's hand reached over and touched the back of her neck, and she let out an involuntary shudder. "My dear, do you think that is all there is about this?"

"You killed them all," she whispered. "You even killed me. How can I follow a god that turns on his own worshippers like that?"

"Perhaps some of us got a bit carried away," the voice said quietly. "We are not all so reckless and wantonly bloodthirsty as Greve."

In spite of herself, Emily was terrified. She didn't like the feeling, one to which she was totally unaccustomed to, and it made her blood run cold and wormed itself inside of her like a frigid serpent. "What do you really want? You would use me, like you used everyone, and you'd turn on me in the end. Why should I trust you?"

"Come. Let us go somewhere a bit more private," he said, glancing momentarily toward Theodore and Suzcecoz. He stepped back into the crew quarters. Emily compulsively followed after him, out of a strange mingling of fear and curiosity. Then he went into the bathroom and beckoned her inside.

"What are you..." Emily said, trailing off with a sigh, stepping into the bathroom. Abram locked the door behind them. "Why are we in the bathroom?"

"They are unbelievers. They work against us. They will not follow us in here." He pulled down the toilet seat and sat down upon it.

"What do you want with me?" Emily said, her voice trembling in fear. Logically, she told herself, she could command this god to stop, but his earlier words seemed to indicate that that was what he wanted her to do, and she would not give him that satisfaction.

"Oh, I think you know what we want," he said, his voice a low hiss, and he grinned devilishly. "Your body, mind, and soul. And your soul already belongs to us..." He slipped a hand up the inside of her thigh. 

"What are you doing?" Emily gasped, taking a step away and hitting the bathtub behind her with her butt. Which god was he? she thought desparately. What was his name? 

"You will be mine," he said, grabbing her by the shoulder and forcing her to her knees with a strength she had never imagined Abram to have. "Will you tell me to stop? Will you command me to begone?" 

Emily was shaking in terror. "Who are you?" she forced herself to say. 

"Do you really know so little about your gods?" He pulled up his robes, and as it turned out, Abram really wasn't wearing anything underneath them. Emily felt her stomach lurch a bit, not at disgust at what she was seeing, but at the entire situation. 

"This can't be happening," she whispered. "Why are you doing this?" 

"My dear, I am not doing anything just yet," he said with an evil grin. "And remember, you can tell me to stop any time you like." 

He reached behind her and began to undo her catsuit. Emily bit her bottom lip, but made no move to tell him to stop. Momentarily, they were both naked except for the tarnished silver talisman that hung like an icicle between Emily's bare breasts. He proceeded to reach a hand between her legs and caress her up to her crotch, probing her a bit with his fingers. 

"Oh my god," she murmured. 

"Yes?" he said with a wry grin. He fondled her breasts and pushed her gently back against the floor, then leaned down and began to lick at her warm, wet slit. 

Emily was trembling now in both pleasure and terror. She tried to think logically. What was she so afraid of? What could he really do to her? She had already been dead, and they could not hold her there. It would be pointless to kill her again. Not while she still bore their talisman. But it felt so good. She tried to calm herself. There was nothing to be afraid of. However, it wasn't working. She had lost any semblance of control over her own emotions. 

"Is the High Priestess afraid?" he said, running his fingers over her breast lightly. "What does she fear? She is not afraid of death, is she? Perhaps she is afraid of life." 

Emily stared up at Abram's naked body, and the eyes of a nameless god stared back at her. "I-- I--" she stuttered, but she was unable to bring to words the myriad of thoughts tumbling about her mind. He grinned at her again, and lowered himself over her, pressing his stiff erection deep inside of her. She let out a gasp of pleasure as she felt it filling her body. Finally she resolved to put her other thoughts out of her mind and focus on the pleasure of the moment. 

Several orgasms later, Emily found herself laying panting on the cold, metallic bathroom floor of the Darkstar. Abram's hand reached over to touch her face, but she knew it was still not Abram. "Yesss," he hissed. "Body and soul, you are mine. You surrender to your pleasures and allow me full reign. You cannot resist me." 

Emily wanted to close her eyes, but she found herself staring up into those dark, inhuman eyes, glittering with inner fire. "What do you want?" she whispered.

"So rude, are you?" he said softly, tracing a finger down the side of her face. "Not 'What are your wishes, master?' or 'What is your bidding, my lord'?"

Emily continued to stare up at him. "You cannot make me say that," she murmured.

"Must I?" he said. "Must I enforce respect from my most trusted servant? Must I demand politeness when you beseech me to use my powers to assist my loyal vassal?"

"Please don't make me say that," she whimpered.

He smiled down at her. "You are pleading now? Then I shall not. I will show more respect than that to my beloved High Priestess." He reached over and picked up his robes from where they had fallen and slipped them on again.

Emily wanted to scowl, but she merely sat up, the metallic amulet dangling between her breasts as a constant reminder of her status. How could she command a god? She was their servant. Perhaps things were not so hopeless after all. Emily fumbled about for her skin-tight black leotard with the symbols of the Death Dancers and the Urians.

"You have many questions, I know," he said, watching her closely. "I will tell you anything you wish to know. You have only to ask."

"Who are you?" she said, looking up to face him again.

He smiled at her. "You will find there is more going on here than perhaps you are prepared to understand. My name is Sheniro."

"That isn't one of the six gods of death..." Emily said in confusion.

"There is much you do not yet understand. But it is a tale for another time. I will take my leave of you now. Please, reclothe yourself, unless of course, you desire to have sex with Abram himself as well."

Emily smirked faintly, and pulled her catsuit back on obediently. "I _will_ want answers soon, you know."

"And you will receive them, my dear. Have patience. The time draws near."

There was a wisp of pink light for a moment, then Abram slumped to the floor.


	17. Where, Oh Where, Have the Pattern Elves Gone?

When the Chaos fleet arrived at Lezaria, however, they found Tinemocun, the capital city, to be completely deserted. Hawthorne, upon seeing this, said, "They evacuated the city? The cowards! Already they flee."

As other parts of the fleet set about to conquering different parts of the large planet, Aviel herself was ridden with the question of where the people of Tinemocun went. "They knew we were coming," Aviel observed. "Their leader is Theryn Shadowhand, a Time Mage like myself. A great deal of Time Magic was used to evacuate the city so quickly. I can still feel it in the air."

However, they were unable to determine precisely where the evacuees had gone. The only teleport that was readily traceable was that of Sardill returning to Castle Selnus, and Aviel did not care to mess with him at the moment. They had used the technique of scattering their teleportation beams to many different places as they went to mask their true destination, and hence there were as many false trails as there were ones that might lead to their actual destination. "Scatter teleportation" the technique was called, or "scatterporting" in the vernacular.

"There's more than one way to find something out," Aviel commented. She proceeded to Seek backwards in time, to where Theryn had been in the city not long before their arrival. It all happened in the blink of an eye, in a very tight time field that greatly accelerated time within it. She backed up, focusing on that field with great concentration, trying to replay the conversations within it in her mind as she zeroed in on Theryn herself.

Theryn had come out of the gates to speak with a young man named Jason, who foretold the future, often with with eerie accuracy, using Tarot cards. They discussed their options, and while Theryn was at first insistant that Tinemocun must not fall, Jason finally convinced her that remaining here and fighting was not the best solution. Remote worlds like Devenia and Wegana were rejected as a new base of operations, and then Theryn came upon an epiphany when she realized there was one place in the universe that they would not, could not be followed: Heaven.

Heaven was a realm of the Ethereal Plane, much like the Abyss. However, unlike the Abyss, which was flooded with dark, tainted mana, Heaven was filled with light mana, strong enough to cause pain for demons there and rendered them helpless. Even mensch found the place made them disoriented and woozy, since they were not so often used to dealing with mana on that scale, while non-demonic mages and angels were able to function there without much difficulty. On top of that, angels experienced extremely rapid physical regeneration while in Heaven, and hence were nigh-impossible to actually kill there.

"Well played, Theryn," Aviel murmured. "You've bought yourself some time. Unfortunately for you, Time was not what you needed."

Meanwhile, over in Heaven, Theryn and Jason were discussing a plan of action. As Jason's cards continued to tell them that fighting Chaos directly was a bad idea and would ultimately lead the to ruin, Theryn realized that there was some critical factor which they weren't taking into account.

"Maybe prepare ourselves or the universe for chaos in the past," Jason suggested.

Theryn shook her head. "If Time were all we needed to prepare, it would not be an issue. However, we are missing a critical factor..."

Jason arched a brow "What's that?"

Theryn rolled her eyes so far they almost fall out of her head. "If I knew, do you think I'd be sitting here being vague?" she smirked.

"Oh, come on. You taught advanced chronomancy.. You must have some idea."

"Prophecy was never my strong suit," Theryn admitted. "I'm better with time fields and time travel."

"Don't look at me, I'm not good enough. But who is?"

"Who isn't Chaos?" Theryn thought aloud. "Mika. Kim'che, maybe. And who says? Don't be so caught up in Time that you think it's the only thing that'll ever give any answers. Time isn't what we need. Something else to change the outcome. I had sent people out looking for potential allies..."

"Heh.." Jason gave a slight nod. "Well then, Do you remember enough to know if you found any?"

"I remember it all," Theryn commented. "Kalli had thought she had found some in Chaos's home universe, but they didn't want anything to do with us. However, the ones who came to us later to help when Zuna Taike destroyed the city..." Jason raised an eyebrow. "They were from the 'Dragon Ball' universe..."

"... There is an actual Dragon Ball universe?" Jason asked incredulously. Theryn smirked. "That was one of my favorite shows. Used to watch it all the time back home."

"Sedder should be there right now, unless he has left since the paradox. Being a Time Mage also, he should remember..."

"Sounds like a start to me," Jason said. "And no, I'm not volunteering to go myself."

Before Jason or Theryn could say much anything else, Goku, Vegeta, Yamcha, and Android 18 appeared around them.

Theryn turned over to look at them with a bit of a smirk. "Ah, thanks for saving me the trip. Welcome to Heaven."

Vegeta coughed and 18 smirked. "Hi!" Goku said. Theryn walked over to them and gave a slight bow of greeting.

"Things were pretty patchy for us, but Sedder explained." Yamcha said.

Theryn nodded. "I'd imagine so." Jason stared at the small envoy of fighters, amazed to see them all, but 18 in particular drew his attention. Vegeta gave a sour nod. "This sort of thing isn't supposed to happen," Theryn muttered. "But considering the circumstances, I'm not going to complain."

"This isn't Tinemocun, but.. We were allies before, we remain so."

"As you may have already noticed, the Chaos fleet has already arrived on Lezaria," Theryn sighed.

"We can't give you all fullest support. Some must remain behind to protect our home," Vegeta said. "We, however, are at your disposal."

Goku gave a faint nod, saying, "I seen. I stopped to make sure of where you were before transmissioning."

"We evacuated Tinemocun and came here since I figured it was the one place they weren't likely to come anytime soon."

Vegeta gave a nod. "Wise move."

"And, we were discussing a plane of action and I was just about to go find you," Theryn said.

Vegeta smirked. "We came in hopes that you had one. A plan of action, that is."

"At this point? I have no idea," Theryn admitted. "Between the Chaos Gods and the Nameless Ones.."

Vegeta made a noise in his throat and glanced over at the three with him, "Goku, Yamcha, 18... Go keep an eye on things, I want to know everything going on everywhere."

Goku nodded and headed out first, 18 pausing long enough to roll her eyes and cross her arms under her breasts before following. Yamcha, however, said, "Dude.. You'll get what we can give." With a shake of his head, he headed out as well.

"Failing all else, at least the Chaos Gods aren't about to destroy the universe and kill everyone."

"The Nameless Ones are certainly less desireable in the immediate sense," Vegeta agreed, "But is Chaos truly any more desireable?"

"Not particularly, in my opinion."

Jason sat quietly, looking between Vegeta and Theryn, absently playing with his Tarot deck. "I would think then," Vegeta said, "The idea is to be rid of both?"

Theryn paced, staring at the grass at her feet. "Pretty much."

"We've learned we cannot defeat the Nameless Ones in battle," Vegeta said. "They simply return from death stronger and more determined than before. I would not put the same past these Chaos Gods."

"Funny thing, if they were attacking one of the remote planets, not only would nobody notice, nobody would likely care. There's probably interstellar wars been going on on the fringe worlds for centuries nobody cares about. But when they start to attack the prime worlds, people pay attention..."

After a good deal of discussion, they realized that they may not actually need to try to destroy the Nameless Ones after all, since they had not done anything to the material plane until anyone tried to destroy them. The immediate problem, therefore, was Chaos.

"Alright," Theryn said. "If the best course of action isn't to fight them outright, what _is_ the best course of action?"

Jason shook his head slowly. "I have no idea."

"Then we must _find out_ ," Theryn insisted. "The best prophet in the universe is Mika. Where is he now?" she asks nobody in particular. "Not, of course, that Mika would most likely say anything non-vague and useful anyway..."

"Not trying is the surest way to fail though," Jason said. "May as well give him a chance."

Since Theryn was terrible at Seeking, Vegeta called in Goku again to find him. Goku got the image from Theryn's mind and searched for him for several minutes, but finally sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, I checked everywhere, even other universes, he's nowhere to be found."

Theryn frowned. "That's strange. Could he be in another timeline, maybe?"

"Unless he's dead, he'd have to be I suppose." Goku said.

"And I'm probably not good enough with Time-Seeking to pinpoint him... so I'll just do this..." She began to channel Time Magic, effectively wove a flashing neon sign of magic that said, "MIKA, WE NEED TO TALK."

Jason sat forward, watching closely, and said, "That's... That's creative."

Momentarily, there was a rumbling sound that could be heard above them. "It's a big ship." Goku said, looking up. It was the Darkstar. The ship came down and landed outside.

"That was quick," Jason murmured as he got up.

"Clearly, he's paying attention," Theryn said with a smirk, standing up and heading for the door. Jason, Vegeta, and Goku were not too far behind

The first one to hop out, however, was Kanraku. "Goku! Vegeta!" he said cheerfully, bouncing over to them. Kalli, at the door, smirked, as Mika stepped out behind her.

"... Hello," Vegeta said to Kanraku, vaguely remembering him.

"Hi!" Goku said with a cheerful wave.

Kanraku beamed brightly at them. Iyriel hopped out as well, happy to see something other than the inside of the ship.

Mika said, "I imagine you're wondering what's going on. We are currently attempting to alter the course of history in order to prevent the resurgence of the Nameless Ones. Perhaps we had best sit down for this."

Jason was robed, and Iyriel was in his gear, but otherwise, they looked like the same person. They proceeded to give each other odd looks and scowls. Theryn, not really noticing them, nodded to Mika and headed inside again. They others followed her back inside.

"You survived, huh?" Goku said to Kanraku.

Once inside and everyone that was going to sit was seated, Mika proceeded to repeat what he had repeated for every other person they had had to explain this all to. He rather sounded like he was repeating something memorized and repeated a hundred times by now.

When Mika was finished, Jason scratched at his head. "So, you guys are taking care of the Nameless Ones. Don't suppose you have any input as to what to do, or not do in concerns of Chaos? The cards tell us not to interfere," he mumbled.

"At the moment, we've not been bothering with them yet," Mika said. "However, we're almost certain that the Nameless Ones will not be capable of easily destroying the universe again in the near future. But even a million in one chance is too much."

"Agreed," Jason nodded.

Suzy entered the building behind them and said, "There is far more going on here than we realize."


	18. Sanity Is For People Not Following the Plot

"Mika, look back along our journey." Suzy gave him some temporal coordinates. "In the right hand bathroom on the ship. Please."

Mika's eyes glazed over for a moment, then he nodded. "Very interesting," Mika said.

Vegeta made a noise, not enjoying being left out of the loop yet again. Suzy gave a rundown of the revelations of the encounter, leaving out the porn. Most people's responce to the rundown was silence, and a rather bewildered one.

"What?" Vegeta blurted. "Sheniro?"

Theryn said, "Sheniro!?" simultaneously.

"I spared him, housed him," Vegeta sputtered, "Had Goku cleanse him."

"Something weird is going on here..." Theryn murmured.

"That definitely was not our Sheniro," Suzy said. "Ours is not capable of ... possessing people. What I don't get is how Sheniro could have any connection whatsoever to the Nameless Ones."

Mika said, "I will attempt to trace his history." He leaned back quietly and went into a deep state of concentration. Jason sighed softly and rubbed at his temples. Vegeta quietly got to his feet and began to pace. Theryn began to drum her fingers against the table again. Suzy poked at a data pad thoughtfully. Jason went back to his comfort zone, which was obviously the cards. "Sheniro was effectively 'born' of raw chaos during the Planar Wars," Mika said in a half-trance-like voice. "But that was not when his soul first came into existence, even if those are his earliest memories. It appears that his soul was trapped in the ring, Zye, for thousands of years..."

Theryn raises an eyebrow, even though Mika couldn't really see her at the moment. Jason blinks looking up at that, fumbling a card that fell face up to the table, the Seven of Swords, falling in a position so that it was upside down to him. "Wait.. Zye.. Zye.. One of the ten rings? The ring of speech?"

"Yes," Mika confirmed. "The other members of the band were also trapped within the Rings... Khan, Teeck, and Gyr, respectively. Although their powers seem to have shifted somewhat. In Lezarian year 2301, Sardill crafted ten magical rings and within them, trapped several powerful spirits..."

Jason looks back to the table finally and the card that fell, and tugs lightly at Theryn's sleeve to get her to look at it. She peered over at it and frowned deeply. The card's usual interpretation, when reversed, was, "Trapped in a hopeless situation. Being caught in a desparate act of cunning or outright deception."

"Spirits?" Jason asked, disturbed by the card, but more by that. "What kind of spirits?"

Mika, continuing to trace them back, said, "Spirits. Powerful beings in the Ethereal Plane. You might call them gods."

"Don't think you need to apply the 'might'," Jason murmured, looking back to the card, saying aloud, "Seven of swords, reversed."

Mika's eyes snapped open. "I've traced them back to Til'raine. They indeed have the same origin as the Chaos Gods and the Nameless Ones."

His words were met by stunned silence around the table. "Lovely.." Jason sighed, grabbing the fallen card and pushing it back into the deck.

"But, how can that be?" Theryn said. "Pyroluminescence, gods? They're nowhere near that power level.'

"Being trapped in the rings could have had some adverse effect.." Jason murmured. "Or, when they were reborn, something may have happened to their souls. I did read a good bit in school. Something was mentioned about souls having the potential to split.."

"That's possible," Suzy said.

"But hell," Jason said, finally looking up. "I can't keep up with this shit, it's too fucking much. Nameless Ones, Chaos Gods, Pyroluminescence being gods, apparently Nameless Ones or something..."

"They're closer to the Chaos Gods, actually," Mika said. "Zelen knew about their shared origins. Sindri did not believe him, however."

"... And they're singing for chaos." Jason muttered. "Bloody drowning Torn elkandu with their music."

Theryn commented, "That could explain why Torn Elkandu was converted so quickly."

"Although I can see why Sindri did not believe them," Mika said. "It's a fairly preposterous notion without backing."

Kalli said, "You know what? I'm not even going to pretend to be able to follow what's going on here. Call me when the plot starts making sense again." She returned to the ship.

"I sort of agree with her." Vegeta grated. "Let me know when something is finalized and we know what the hell we're to do." He stalked off somewhere.

"Someone bring Emily and Abram in here," Mika said.

Iyriel went and brought them in. Emily was a bit tossled and still smelled of sex, but none the worse for wear. Both Iyriel and Jason made slight faces and gave their noses a twitch and a rub. Mika looks over to them and nodded to a chair. Emily and Abram sat down warily.

Mika looked her over for a long moment and then finally said, "Yes. I believe this is the key."

Jason glances around, wondering who would broach the subject first, but willing to do so himself. Jason said, "Uh.. So.. You and Sheniro huh? It's sort of clear how that must've went at this point."

Emily stared at him silently. Abram said, "Huh?"

Emily said, "How in the Hell...?"

"Well, there's the smell, that's a dead give away in it's own right. The rest." Jason nodded to Suzy and Mika. "They time seeked."

"There are no secrets from Chronomancers," Emily muttered in irritation.

Abram said, "Wait a minute. Who is Sheniro?"

"A god apparently, that was possessing you." Jason said.

Abram said, "That is not one of the Nameless Ones." Mika sat back, observing their exchange.

Jason went on, "However, we're trying to figure out his exact alignment at the moment. But given Emily's state, there was plenty of fun it seems." Emily flushed with embarassment.

Abram said, "Wait a minute. We had sex, and I don't remember it? No fair!" Emily smacked him.

"I can understand your disappointment," Jason said, "And feel your pain.." He was, however, glad to be too far away to smack easily.

"Anyways, if Sheniro isn't a god of death, what was he playing at then, and what god is he actually?"

Abram said, "He is the Son, one of the Gods of Life."

Emily stared at him. "And how do you know that?"

"Well, he could be the Daughter, too," Abram admitted. "I'm not too sure..."

People stared at him. Emily said, "What?"

"Hey, it's not _my_ pantheon, you can't expect me to know everything."

"Okay, is this proving at all helpful to anyone else?" Jason asked, looking around

Mika said, "We have our critical factor now. What sort of future do we wish to shape, then?"

"How about a not fucked up one?" Jason and Iyriel muttered in unison.

"Now, now. Let's be reasonable."

Theryn smirked. "I believe the first, most obvious requirement is that the gods must remain confined to the Ethereal Plane," Theryn said. "Anything else invites catastrophe."

 "I think we all here are in agreement about that," Suzy said.

Mika said, "And to ensure that, our dear Emily here is at the crux of the matter."

Emily stared at the table. She said quietly, "What do I have to do?"

Mika pointed to the talisman dangling around her neck. "Whatever you do, don't lose that or destroy it. Not now."

Emily stared at it. "I wasn't planning on it."

"Does that hunk of metal actually give her power over the gods?" Jason asked, clearly doubtful.

"I doubt even you could fail to see the magic that binds it there."

"Hmph." Jason turned his head to look at Emily. "Yeah. Guess it all does rely on her."

Mika stared at her for a long moment, waiting, looking at the future perhaps.

Jason gives a soft sigh and absently flips a card onto the table to look at. It was Willpower, reversed. Senseless violence and warmongering. Lack of discipline. Jason scowls at the card before slipping it back into the deck.

"This is not over yet," Mika said. "There is more that must be done first. Attempting this now will result in failure." He stood up and headed back toward the ship.

Jason stares after him then looks to Theryn in confusion, questioningly. Emily continued to stare silently at the table. Theryn said, "You get used to it."

People began to file out, and Theryn sighed and stood up, following after them. "You're not leaving me behind this time."

"Hey.. Hey!" Jason grumbled. "What about the rest of us?"

"Are you coming or staying here?"

"Damnit." Jason muttered. "I hate difficult choices." He checked a card, hoping it will guide him. It was the Four of Cups, reversed. Reawakening of love. New opportunities and relationships. Rejuvenation and ambitions.

"Would you feel better if I ordered you to come and you had to decide whether ot listen to me or not?" she said, clearly in jest.

"Uh.." Jason went and turned the card towards her. "I'm not sure how to answer that. But best not to tempt me, less you want me horny." He grumbles, moving to head for the ship

Theryn snickered, wiggled at him briefly, then went out of the building. "18 and I'll be going," Goku said. "The other two will remain here."

Theryn nodded. They boarded the ship and headed back into the main area. Iyriel couldn't help but grin when he saw 18 board, thinking this trip might become more fun suddenly. The screen in the main area of the ship began to show what was going on outside as Mika and Kalli got set up in the cockpit for more temporal manipulations. At least Suzy built the ship a bit large for their needs, or it would be feeling a bit crowded now.

Iyriel glanced at all the newcomers, and said, "Get ready folks. We're about to leave Kansas, and any semblence of sanity, behind."


	19. To Change the Universe

For quite some time, they flew through time, making the final modifications to prevent any possible occurrance of the Nameless Ones' devastation, even on a million in one chance. Things were relatively quiet in the cockpit while the others on board the ship watched the screen monitoring the changes or occupied themselves in other ways such as eating, playing with the train set, or attempting to delve into the crystal ball.

While they were doing this, Suzcecoz came upon Jason attempting to use her crystal ball, however it was not functioning properly. After making some adjustments, she grew fairly disturbed at the images it displayed. Then, following a lengthy discussion of angst, Suzcecoz convinced Jason to not give up hope, and promised that she would find his beloved, Arianrhod, once this was over. She then worked Memory magic on him and restored his memories of past lives and properly integrated them into his consciousness, while partitioning off other consciousnesses that were interfering with her work.

Suzy and Jason headed then into the cockpit to check on Mika's progress. The swirling purple nothing of a wormhole surrounded them, visible out the windows.

Mika said, "We are returning to Linear-Alpha-6 now that we have completed that, since it is the timeline closest to the original."

"What, does that mean we're done?" Jason asked.

"No. It means we can begin the final phase of what we must do."

"Which is?" Jason wondered.

"If you would desist in interrupting me, I would tell you." Mika smirked. Jason quirked his lips and gave a slight nod of his head. "Now. The energy signatures of the items and people we must find must be from the same timeline in order to properly connect. Our own signatures of those of us who escaped will be closest to that of those within LA-6. We must located nine Time Mages of Master power level or higher, as well as several magical items including the Zarnith, the Daggerstone, the Crown of Sorcery..."

Suzy said, "Wait, do that many Time Mages even _exist_?"

Mika just looked at her. "We will collect Sedder first."

Jason said, "Personally, I think the nine chronomancers might be the easy part."

Suzy said, "Well, Theryn and the Zarnith are already aboard the ship..."

"Still," Jason said, "Mages are everywhere."

"Not just _any_ Time Mage will suffice," Mika said. "There are few enough even of those." The ship entered real space over near where Sedder was. "Hence the power level requirement."

Kalli flew the ship in toward his general vicinity over what appeared to be a parallel Earth. Nobody came out to blow them up. She set them down on a landing pad and popped open the hatch for whoever is going to fetch him, remaining seated herself. Suzcecoz and Jason got out to fetch Sedder.

Vegeta opened the door as Suzy and Jason arrived at their current location. Suzy said, "We need to borrow Sedder for a bit. Mika says we need, quote, 'nine Time Mages of Master power level or higher'." She gave a slight roll of her eyes and a smirk.

"... Then who will teach us?" Vegeta complained.

"Uh..." Suzy fished around in her pocket, pulled out a small cube, and tossed it to him. It had several buttons, none of them labeled.

"What's this?"

"Holographic instructive device."

"How does it work?"

"You press buttons and it does stuff," Suzy explained. "The buttons are actually just for show, anyway, since it operates telepathically."

Vegeta grunted at the thing in his hand, but gave a nod. Sedder said, "I don't know what Mika might want, but if it involves nine Time Mages, it must be big."

"He's making it seem so, yes," Jason commented. Jason just gave a shake of his head.

Sedder gave a bit of a bow to Vegeta and said, "I'll be back. If at all possible." He smirked.

Vegeta nodded to him in return. "We'll have a place set for you at the table every night."

Sedder chuckled softly, gave a wave, and headed off with Suzy. Trying to figure out how the thing works, Vegeta walked off, starting to press buttons. A hologram of Suzy appeared and began reciting a pre-programmed script.

Once they reached the ship, Jason asked, "Who's next?"

Kalli took off into the sky again. Mika said, "Some of the others may pose issues."

"Heh," Jason said. "You, Theryn, Sedder. Three down. There is always Rhuan."

"Yes," Mika said, keeping his tone carefully neutral. He scanned around to locate where he might be at the moment, and found him near the Outer Planes. He gave Kalli the coordinates and they entered another wormhole. They emerged somewhere above him, where he was poking around some ancient ruins. Kalli landed at a fairly open spot about a dozen meters to the south of the opening in which Rhuan was.

Suzy got out to locate him. Rhuan said, "Hi, Suzy," as she approached behind him.

Suzy smiled at him. "Hey. What're you up to?"

"Do you want to know what I'm up to, or do you want me to go with you?"

Suzy smirked. "Do they have to be mutually exclusive?"

"Heh," Rhuan said. "No, probably not. But who says I want to do both?"

"Mika says he needs 'nine Time Mages of Master power level or higher'," Suzy quoted again.

Rhuan smirked. "What for?"

"He didn't say."

Rhuan glanced around the chamber one last time before nodding to her. "Let's go then."

"I imagine whatever it is is probably of multiversal-shaking proportions," Suzy muttered, heading back to the ship.

"Would have to be, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah..." She boarded the ship again. "I am _going_ to make a bigger ship with a real bridge. Sometime." Rhuan chuckled as he climbed in after her. "Next?"

"I can't wait." Rhuan said.

"Kim'che," Mika said.

"If you plan to ask Aviel at all, let her be the last one," Jason said.

"Yes, I was planning on that," Mika told him. "I had considered Keliza instead, but she's very weak with Time."

Kalli flew over to wherever Kim happened to be, which was thankfully not Edron nor with Jami at the moment. Jami might be being a recluse, but Kim wasn't. It was night on whatever planet it was. Kim peered up toward the spaceship as it lands and Kalli opens the hatch. Suzy hopped out to wave at her.

"Mika requires nine Time Mages of Master power level or higher," Suzy said

Kim smirked. "Okay..." She got on board.

Once they took off again, Mika sid, "Lexen." Then after picking up Lexen, they went over to get Silver. Silver was, thankfully, _not_ wearing a chicken suit. And Lexen did not drown the ship in beer.

"That Lexen is only alive because of the Temporal Convergence, though," Suzy said. "Will the temporal signature be close enough?" Mika gave a nod. "Okay. Who's our Number 8?"

"Uh..." Jason thought for a moment. "There has to be hundreds more out there. I just don't know any of them."

Suzy said, "I think you overestimate not only how common Time Magic is, but how common _strong_ Time Mages are."

Mika said, "Set a course for Serriya. Our best bet is Erensis."

Suzy said, "... Who?" She thought for a moment. "Oooh. Him."

"Who?" Jason asked.

"Erensis is the Serriyan god of Time," Suzy explained. "Well, he's not actually a god. The Serriyans called any number of powerful Elkandu gods, including me at one point."

"Ahhh.." Jason nodded.

The ship arrived momentarily over the planet of Serriya. Kalli brought them in for a landing at the coordinates Mika had input, a clearing in a forest somewhere.

"Who get to play fetch now?" Rhuan asked.

Standing silently watching them was an old man in a gray robe holding a large hourglass, the only movement being the ticking of sands through it and the slight tug of the wind at his hair and robes. Iyriel tried not to snigger too loudly.

"I'll get him." Suzy popped out.

"I want to see this," Rhuan said, following.

"Mika requires--" Suzy began.

The old man cut her off. "I know what you require. I will assist, for the sake of Destiny. For Time and the universe must again be set right, and only this will accomplish this." Rhuan smirked. "Mock not my words, Avatar of Ruination." He stepped toward the ship.

Rhuan refrained from sticking his foot out. "This was easier than expected," he tepped to Suzy.

Suzy replied, "Don't speak too soon. We still need Aviel. And we still need the Daggerstone and the Crown of Sorcery."

"Wish I had a slave collar on hand." Rhuan murmured. Erensis headed for the back of the ship quietly and they took off again.

"Let's pick up the Daggerstone and Crown first," Mika said. "Glassandia."

Surprisingly, the Glass Crown of Sorcery was precisely where it was supposed to be. Which was the last place anyone would ever check. They landed at Conclave headquarters, and Mika headed in, retrieved it, and left. Suzy bit her lip about how easy this all was. They took off again. "The Daggerstone is a bit trickier, but we'll just need to go where it will appear next. Then we'll need to put a Time net over it to prevent it from disappearing again. Sasherey."

They fly off into the frigid wasteland of Sasherey. Kalli plops the ship down into a bank of snow, half-sinking as it settles down.

Suzy said, "Meh, I hate this place."

"Who doesn't?" Rhuan muttered.

"Um... Snow elves and frost mages."

"Fair," Rhuan admitted.

Thanks to their precise coordinates, the Daggerstone actually appeared in the middle of the ship moments later.

"Somebody time-field that chunk of crystal," Suzy said.

"Uh.. Right." Rhuan said, and threw the weave at it. The stone held in place, locked firmly in its current time by the spell.

"Alright," Mika said. "Now. Aviel."

"Excellent," Kalli said. "Let's fly into a warzone and try to convince their mighty Sorceror to help us. Sorceress. Whatever."

"Sounds fun," Goku said.

Kalli set her transponder to "don't fucking shoot me", for all the good it would do if they even use the same types of transponders, and set a course for Lezaria.

"Show time," Rhuan said.

The wormhole opened before them, and momentarily they appeared in the skies over Lezaria. A number of Chaos ships were in orbit of the planet, and Kalli did some fancy flying in order to avoid them and bring them down over the central continent of Kalor. The coordinates Mika had given designated a rocky canyon in a large mountain range at the northern part of the continent. There was a large cave that radiated Time Magic already nearby. She brought them down and landed.

"Something's going on in there," Rhuan said.

Mika said over the intercom, "Alright, folks. It's time. Come with me into Aurora Core."

Kalli opted to watch the ship as the others disembarked and filed into the cavern one by one. Further within the cave, there were three shimmering portals radiating Time Magic, showing countless ever-shifting images. Aviel stood between them. Waiting for them.

Emily and Abram trailed in last, staring about in confusion.

Rhuan looked Aviel over. Aviel said, "So you are here."

Mika said "We stand at the Gates of Time."

Suzy gaped at the place. "You could do absolutely anything here, with this sort of power, couldn't you..."

"We're about to find out," Rhuan said.

Jason got Theryn's attention and showed her Innocence reversed. Apathy and negligence. Unquenchable wanderlust. Delirium and folly. Obsession and oblivion. Theryn frowned at it. "Mika?" Jason asked. Abram was grinning in a very un-Abram-like manner. Of course, nobody except Emily knew him well enough to realize that unless they had Time-Seeked or aura-read or otherwise cheated.

Mika was beginning to usher the Time Mages into a circle, placing Emily in the center facing him. He glanced over at Jason. "Yes?" Jason grumbled and scurried over and shows him the card. "The future is ever changing," Mika said. "This is the point where all prophecy will fail. But try what you like regardless. Perhaps it will offer at least some insight." Jason frowned a bit but stepped back. "For a proper assessment of the situation, you will require not one card, but nine."

"... Right." Jason grumbled, pulling out nine cards one by one and arranging them in a circle.

Joy - Contentment, freedom from restraint. Achievement and success. Happiness and inspiration.  
Ace of Wands (reversed) - The seed of a crisis. The start of an explosive situation.  
Eight of Wands - Decisive action, setting things in motion, cutting through confusion.  
Nine of Wands - A pause to ready oneself. Preparation to meet the final conclusive onslaught.  
Temptation - Seduced by power. Caged by luxury. Living in fear and domination.  
Reflection - Mystery and illusion. Dreams and imagination. Smoke and mirrors.  
Reflection (reversed) - Clarity and control. Setbacks overcome. Peace in the midst of troubles.  
Sacrifice - Surrender. Improvement through rebirth. Readjustment and regeneration.

"Heh.. Go for it." Jason mumbled.

Suzy peered over at the cards. "What does it mean? Aside from the fact that you obviously have more than one deck of cards in there."

He nodded to the people in a circle. "It's them."

She looked at them, and the cards, and said, "Well, yeah, I gathered as much."

"Nothing specifically." He laid out three cards in a line.

King of Gems (reversed) - Identifying weakness and exploiting it for personal gain. Greed, avarice, and corruption.  
Skill - Creativity and confidence. Control of one's life.  
Child of Gems - The surprising appearance of new prosperity and opportunity.

"That's what means something," Jason said. "Past, present, then future."

She raised an eyebrow. He gave a summary of the reading for anyone curious who didn't know.

"Now," Mika said. "It is **time**!" He begins to channel Time Magic, expecting the other Time Mages to follow suit and link into a circle. He didn't think he needed to instruct _them_ on what to do and how to do it. Rhuan shrugged and followed suit. The others fell in one by one.

"If anyone starts singing campfire songs or peace to the world, I'll kill them." Rhuan said.

"With this group? Hah," Theryn said.

The Gates of Time glowed radiantly. Mika focused and channelled energy into Emily's talisman in front of him, blinding beams of light connecting the circle, the talisman, and the Gates. A couple people shielded their eyes, squinting. Enough magic was pouring through and out of this cavern that any mage in the universe who wasn't drunk or unconscious would probably notice it. Then, the light soared to blinding proportions, and with a flash, everything changed. 


	20. Memory and Truth

On board Zso's ship, a robed figure suddenly appeared. One minute he wasn't there, and the next minute he was simply there, without flash or fanfare. He stood there swaying momentarily, blinking and rubbing his head dizzily. Two raptors were at him almost instantly, chainswords rumbling. "Who are you and what is your business?"

"What the--Hey, I'm on your side!" the man protested. They weren't attacking him--yet.

The man was freaking out. This was clearly the last thing he expected. "I am Sedder the Shadow," he declared.

Ruby red eyes glared at him. "We don't know that name." One leaned in close for a moment. "You reek of Chaos, but we cant be sure you're not from a faction sent to attack Lord Sahaal. Who sent you?"

"Don't you recognize me?" he protested. "I've been here for months!" Sedder stared about worriedly. "What in the Abyss is going on here?"

The Raptors looked at each other. "We were wondering the same thing. NOW WHO SENT YOU?"

Suddenly it dawned on him. "That was Time Magic I sensed... Something must have changed... or sent me to another timeline..." Sedder shuddered, from fear, revulsion, or anger was unclear.

Zso turned around, noticing one of his guards shouting over the low thrum of the engines. "What is going on here?" He stomped over, wearing similar armor and a white helmet that looked like an avian skull.

"I would very much like to know that myself, Lord Sahaal," Sedder replied, "but it would appear that, through some use of Time Magic, I have arrived in another timeline or the timeline which I was in has merged with this one. I am uncertain as to which at the moment."

"You look like a cultist to me..." He studied the robe. "Alpha Legion? Did Alpharius set you up to spy on me? Or are you one of Abbadon's flunkies come to make sure I follow orders?"

Sedder just sighed. "You know, were I here to spy, I would be doing a good deal better job of it. I am _Sedder the Shadow_. And as far as I remember, I have been on this ship for months."

"Oh, you're that guy that was pushing atheism to people that can't help but believe in their deities, otherwise they'd get killed."

Sedder blinked in confusion. "What? I didn't do that..."

"And I thought Angron was insane..."

"Oh, for love of Darkness, I abandoned that idiocy before I started it when Suzy tipped me off..."

"In another timeline you sure as hell didn't!" Zso snapped.

"Look, seriously, had I done that, do you think I'd be standing here admitting who I am to you?"

"You pissed off Shaza-whatshisname something fierce."

"I'm _perfectly_ good at being inconspicuous if I want to be," Sedder said. Suddenly he looked like the guy standing behind him, armor and all. Then he shifts again and looked like Zso. "Or I could appear to be not here at all." Then he vanished for a moment, before reappearing. "But I'm not. I'm _here_ , I'm _not_ hiding, and I'm _not_ spying. And I'm not an idiot." He sighed.

Zso chuckled. "It must've been in the alternate timeline you keep talking about."

Sedder rubbed his head. The Raptors stepped back a bit, realizing this wasn't some run-of-the-mill crazed cultist. Sedder sighed again. "Fine... where are we? When are we? What's going on?"

"We are in the Night Bringer, the capital ship of the Night Lord Legion. When, uh, whatever time you go by in this universe, I don't know. We were about to assault another few planets, but some big disturbance got Abaddon's High Sorceror all upset about something, so we're going to investigate it's source."

"I felt it as well. I identified it as Time Magic, and was almost certainly what brought me here." Sedder pondered for a moment. "Tell me. Have you taken over Mezulbryst and set up a base there yet?"

"I think we were on our way to a planet with a name like that."

"Then the relative events of my timeline were somewhat ahead of this, most likely," Sedder mused. "Although it wasn't particularly difficult to take over Mezulbryst. Considering I had already taken over it anyway. I wonder if my alternate here did that as well..."

"If he did, he's in for a rude awakening," Zso commented. The Raptors chuckled evilly. "We got redirected from the attack though to investigate the magic disturbance. What's this 'Lezaria', anyway?"

"Yes, somebody is going to need to die for this," Sedder muttered. "I dislike having my plans disrupted like this. Lezaria is my home planet.. Actually the home planet of the Elkandu in general. If you want the technical specs, the gravity is 1.4 G's, the sun is 150% Solar brightness, two moons, high level of mana, population 3 billion at least last time I checked... That might be somewhat lower now..." he smirked.

"Is that were this "Nexus" is located?" Zso asked.

"No. The Nexus is in Torn Elkandu, which is in the Ethereal Plane adjacent to Lezaria."

"I've heard talk of some massive teleportation device, Sindri mentioned it in a communique as he was busily taking the planet over, although gods know what's going on there now."

Sedder said, "I'm not going to trust my information to be up to date and correct for this timeline," Sedder sighed. "My 'when the fuck am I' spell isn't being useful either. It's just telling me I'm in Linear-Alpha. The primary timeline. Which is where I thought I _was_."

"You can name these things and keep them straight?" Zso said almost incredulously.

"Suzcecoz was the one that came up with the system. However, it's pretty arbitrary. Linear-Alpha is just the 'real' timeline and everything else changes. Meh. I hate Time Magic. Well, no. I take that back. I hate time travel. Chronomancy is very useful."

Meanwhile, over at the Gates of Time, Aviel was laying on the floor unconscious. She woke to the feeling of a slight frostbite on her shoulder, and blinked her eyes open, sitting up quickly. 

"What have we here?" said a voice. It was a human sized and shaped figure comprised completely of ice. Wisps of light blue energy wicked off it's skin, and it fixed her with a pair of black eyes.

Aviel's form had changed again. She was again a quicksilver demon, and no longer a couatl, dark phoenix, djinn, or true vampire. Her skin was silvery and liquid-smooth, her wings fluidic and graceful, and a whip-like tail coiled around her legs. Her eyes were no longer two gleaming spheres of blue fire, but almost normal again, aside from the obvious fact that she was still Chaos. And no longer did her skin give off the radiant glow marking one who had used the Geneforge.

"You're an odd looking one." The figure emitted a baritone voice.

"You aren't really one to talk," Aviel muttered. She climbed to her feet slowly.

"So, what just happened here?"

"Who're you?" she wondered, glancing brightly at the left-hand gate. She half expected every Chaos Sorcerer and random Elkandu on the planet to show up any minute now.

"I'm Gelidus, Cryomancer, gone a bit too far... you are?"

"Aviel Tintallia. Time Mage. Obviously." He smirked again. "What happened here? We changed Time. There were others here... where did they go," she wondered aloud. "No matter." She headed for the tunnel.

"Who's 'we'? I only see one of you. And to what point or purpose?"

"Ironically enough, to save the universe, sort of," Aviel explained. "I don't imagine Chaos Sorcerers do that an awful lot."

"Chaos?" Gelidus asked. "Random acts happening constantly everywhere?"

"Not quite." He followed her, although he moved slow. She strolled through the tunnel and out into the bright Lezarian sunlight, peering up at the sky. "Where is everybody?" she muttered.

"If I knew, I'd probably tell you." Aviel rolled her eyes, and scanned about trying to find Magnus again. Gelidus spoke and walked about as fast as the molecules he was comprised of. "So, what were you saving the universe from, anyway?"

"Primarily, the Nameless Ones. Although there were some other changes as well. Which hopefully most people won't even realize anyway." Aviel leaned against a nearby rock, waiting for everyone to show up and wonder what was going on so she can explain at them rather than leaving and leaving them wondering to find the Gates for themselves.

"What sort of changes...?" Gelidus seemed curious, but not particularly worried.

Then she realized _why_ everyone hadn't shown up already. "Hmm. It would appear that the veil has been strengthened enough to make long-range teleportation rather more difficult. Alright, for starters... step away from the cave." Gelidus stepped away. "Obviously, he left me here so I could do this..." The rocks near the cavern had obviously been recently cleared away to allow passage into the tunnel after a landslide. She started to telekinetically destabilize the tunnel to collapse it again.

"So, uh, who's 'he', and why are you collapsing the cave in on itself?"

It took some effort and concentration, but momentarily, the entire tunnel collapsed in on itself. "I am a Chronomancer. It is my job to be vague and unhelpful."

She proceeded to seal the place magically with another spell. Aviel warded up the place carefully, taking her time about it due to the strengthened veil.

"So, it would be bad if someone were to re-gain access to this place," Gelidus observed.

"For them, most likely. The Gates of Time would rip apart anyone without sufficient Time Magic to harness their power."

"Now, I just need a warning to prevent people from poking around in here and trying to undo my wards anyway." She enscribed the words "Take warning ye who would enter here. Within these gates are bound the entire collection of 21st century Terran rap."

"You don't think the wards being obvious would be enou---" He remembered the kind of people he'd seen in his time. "--good idea."

"Hmm. Well, it was the most horrible and terrifying thing I could think of," Aviel said.

"I should suppose so."

She even enspelled it to begin playing rap very loudly when the wards were tampered with. She poked at it for two seconds to test, and said. "Excellent. That should deter anyone from tampering with Time again." Then, once finished with that, she proceeded to try to find people again.

"Something odd about you... I mean besides the fact you look like a demon." Geldius said.

"I _am_ a demon," Aviel said. "A quicksilver demon, to be specific."

"Not just that..." Gelidus commented. "You seem unlike most Elkandu."

Aviel gave a shrug and teleported out, having finally found who she was looking for. She proceeded to explain to Magnus more or less what happened and why so that they could stop wondering about it.

Meanwhile, over in Torn Elkandu, Keolah was staring toward the sky. She knew the fleet had been here. But they were moving on. She detected them moving toward the other Elkandu worlds again. She was mildly irritated about the entire business. She had been sure that they would come to Torn Elkandu first, after all Sindri had done here to prepare for their arrival.

In the distance, the sounds of Pyroluminescence resounded loudly, reinforcing and supporting the thoughts and feelings of the people in Torn Elkandu. Keolah thought back to her conversation with Sheniro. It had left her curious and wondering for more. Keolah Kedaire, the Seeker of Truth, realized that there was still much she did not understand. She aimed to find out what she could. And for what she could not, she would give a good effort there as well.

She remembered little of the events of the averted timeline. Although she did have some Time Magic herself, being a full omnimancer, she was far from inborn with it. Even what Rhuan had explained to her was fleeting quickly ever since the last flash of Time Magic. Time and Change she had sensed from it, and she knew that it was somehow to set things right again. To prevent the utter destruction of the universe. However, it did little to put her at ease or to answer her many questions.

Momentarily, Aviel arrived in Torn Elkandu via the Nexus, and met up with Duvon and spoke with him for a time. Keolah did not disturb them. She murmured to herself, "If you won't come to me, I'll just have to come to you. I'm sick of being left out of everything. Of being ignored. Forgotten." She proceeded to scan the Chaos fleet.

Meanwhile, over in Shieltas, Rhuan was remembering what had just happened. He went over and spoke with Suzcecoz about the recent events. Neither of them was Chaos any longer. Suzy said, "The Chaos fleet has arrived and is attacking Lezaria."

Her equipment was having some difficulty with its long-range scans, but it still managed, albeit with a bit more poor reception than usual. For the moment, the two of them decided to simply leave things be. It wasn't like people taking over the universe was particularly unusual, nor that it should be some affront that somebody other than the Elkandu took over. Suzcecoz went off to start work on a new, bigger spaceship, while Rhuan went down to work on weapons and armor.

Rhuan had difficulty getting the enchantments he wanted onto his sword, and went over to find Suzy to ask her about it. On the way, he was pounced by an overly enthusiastic Kanraku. He was definitely alive, although his skin was now normal colored and his feet had five toes now instead of three, but he still had his tail. He did not seem to remember much.

They went over to check on Suzy's work, out in the city she was using as a hangar, as building ships inside was irritating because then you had to have a way to get the thing out of there again, and the castle wasn't equipped with hangar doors or anything. She had already gotten the basic skeleton of the ship down. "It's not a very big ship. Less than a mile long."

Rhuan smirked. He explained his difficulties with enchantments. She suggested he try enchanting it withing the Ethereal Plane instead. He nodded and attempted to enter the Ethereal Plane, but after several tries, ultimately failed. He was not particularly happy about this. Suzy, however, did not seem concerned.

"I'll manage, one way or another," she said. "I always do."


	21. Lost Souls

As Keolah was scrying across the Ethereal Plane, a woman approached her, saying, "Keolah!" She didn't recognize the woman offhand, but her aura identified her as being primary in Mind and latent in Death.

Keolah grumbled mentally and focused her attention on her present location and said, "Yes? Can I help you with something?" A quick name-check spell identified the person as Manasa, and she vaguely remembered having seen her before with Sindri, although she had been very quiet at the time, hovering in the shadows almost as if she wasn't really there. Rather like Keolah felt she was doing all too often lately.

"You're supposed to be the best Seeker in the universe," Manasa said, her voice shaking. "But can you find Sindri? He just... disappeared. I can't find him anywhere. Where could he be?"

Keolah nodded. "I'll give it a shot." She recalled Sindri's aura signature, and proceeded to scan over the universe for a match. She was in the Ethereal Plane, so magic on this level was not particularly difficult, although she was having difficulty penetrating the veil over the Deep Ethereal with anything more than Seeking. But Seeking, at least, was getting through just fine. However, over all the Elkandu worlds and even the other universes she could get a glimpse of, she found nothing even remotely matching Sindri's signature. Keolah finally shook her head and said, "I can't find him. I'm sorry."

"You can't find him?" Manasa said, her voice almost a whimper. "What could have happened to him?"

Manasa led her over to the place where Sindri had been, and Keolah scanned the area for signs of teleportation or other magical residue, however she came up empty aside from the residual Time Magic that was all over the universe still. "Are you sure this is where he was?"

Manasa gave a nod. "He was standing right there, and then he was just gone."

"How long ago was this?"

"About an hour or so," Manasa said.

"That was when the Time Change I sensed occurred..." Keolah said, musing aloud. "It could well be that he isn't anywhere to be found anymore..."

"He's... just... gone?" Manasa almost choked out.

"I'm afraid so," Keolah said, putting a hand on Manasa's shoulder consolingly. She peered at the girl for a long moment. "Hmm. You're not Chaos?"

Manasa shook her head. "No... He pretty much refused to convert me."

"Why?" Keolah wondered.

"I--he..." Manasa sighed. She shook her head. "I suppose if he's really gone, it's no real secret anymore..." She took a deep breath. "He was in love with me. He... didn't want to subject me to the atrocities, the madness, he wanted to spare me from that. He said I was uncorrupt and that I made him human again."

Keolah frowned thoughtfully. "Interesting, that someone who had been with Chaos so long could be so against it. But was that really what you wanted?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "Not at all. I always resented him for it, but I kept it quiet, I hid it from him as best as I could." She sighed. "But now, I don't know what I'm going to do, with him gone like that..."

"You were always so quiet around him, almost as if you weren't really there," Keolah observed. "Are you ready to be your own person now, instead of living in another person's shadow?"

"I don't know," Manasa said quietly. "But it's time to do something, whether or not I'm ready."

"I wish you luck," Keolah said. She nodded to Manasa and headed for the Nexus, and they parted ways again.

Keolah wondered why the girl had confided so much in a complete stranger, but didn't really find it strange for her. People were always telling Keolah things, their deepest secrets and their wildest dreams. Although she was no great Speaker, the confidence and charisma that tended to exhude from her and her natural aura of leadership made people instinctively trust her.

As she approached the Nexus, the runes glowed and Faith appeared between the obelisks, scythe in hand. They greeted one another and Keolah said, "What are you doing here, Faith?"

"I was just about to ask you the same thing," Faith replied.

"I was just leaving, actually," Keolah said. "I've been gathering information. Seeking truth."

Faith nodded to her, and they parted again, and Keolah stepped into the Nexus and teleported away from Torn Elkandu. Faith looked over to Manasa, who was leaning against a nearby wall and staring off at nothing in particular, still shaking a bit, and said, "Are you a friend of Keolah's?"

"Um..." Manasa said. "No, not really."

She explained that she had asked Keolah to find a friend of hers, but that she had failed and the man just seemed to no longer exist. Faith said, "Well, I sympathize with your loss, but if this person was Chaos, then that is no loss."

Manasa's eyes flared in anger. "Sindri was a good man! How dare you judge someone like that?"

"Sindri?" Faith said. "The man who brought Chaos upon us all? Then so much the better that he is gone. And you share in his crimes."

Manasa shook her head vigorously. "No. No. Sindri was a good man. You don't understand. It was _my_ idea to come here. Damn it all."

Faith shifted her scythe as if prepared to use it on a moment's notice and looked hard at Manasa. "You brought this all down upon us. Remember that." She turned and walked away, alert in case Manasa decided to attack her from behind. However, Manasa stormed off in a huff toward Earth's Square instead, where the band was currently playing.

Faith teleported out with the Nexus to Lezaria, looking for a fight. Some Khornate Berserkers were more than happy to give her one. Faith, however, quickly realized that her magic was not working nearly as well as it had been, and only her own combat skill prevented her from being wounded worse than she actually was. After healing her bleeding leg with great effort, she teleported over to Shieltas, arriving exhausted and weak. She spoke briefly with Suzy before going to take a bath and a good sleep.

However, in a galaxy far, far away, some people were slowly waking up on a planet somewhere. Kalli stared at the starry sky and said, "You know, the fact that I can't remember how the hell we got here is probably not a good sign."

"I remember," Emily said, staring up quietly at the stars.

"That's lovely. Care to tell?"

"You don't want to know," Emily replied.

"I'll take your word on that." Kalli sat up slowly and stretched. "Now where the hell might 'here' be?"

Abram sat up, rubbing his head, and said, "I am so very confused."

Asura commented, "You aren't the only one. Who are you?"

"I am Abram, High Priest of the--" he blinked for a moment, looking at Emily, then down at his chest. "Why are you wearing my talisman, Emily? Wait... is that..." He stared for a long moment.

Emily stood up slowly, brushing herself off. She looked almost regal with the shining silver talisman around her neck, in the shape of a living face with deep blue sapphires for eyes. "I am the High Priestess of the Gods of Life and Death," Emily said, staring at the talisman for a long moment thoughtfully.

Abram frowned. "I can sense the same energies from it, but it looks very different. What the hell is going on here?"

"Everything has changed," Emily said, looking up at the sky again. "But for the better."

Kalli did not know whose face the talisman was meant to represent, but it seemed somehow hauntingly familiar and impossibly attractive at the same time. It almost seemed as though the face was alive, looking at her with charismatic blue eyes, but she could not even place whether it should be male or female. But then she noticed, along the chain and around outside the edge of the face, there were other symbols, runes and signs. She did not know what they meant.

"Kalli, you're staring," Asura said, poking her.

Kalli blinked for a moment and looked over at him. "What?" Averting her eyes from Emily, Kalli glanced about for her Darknova, and found it parked next to Emily's own ship not far away. Boarding it, she did a rundown of the ship's systems and a scan for their current location. As she did so, she couldn't help but notice there were a few changes to the ship she couldn't remember having been made. "Asura, did you modify the main power couplings and the jump drive?"

"I believe so, yes," he said.

"We're on an awfully remote planet," Kalli observed. "How the hell _did_ we get here? Bah, no matter. Probably some of that hocus-pocus nonsense anyway." She momentarily scanned the cybernet for some clue as to what had been going on recently, as her memory was fairly fuzzy on that as well. Kalli picked up nothing out of the ordinary, however, aside from the obvious fact that much of the cybernet was currently controlled by Chaos still. Something was nagging at her brain about that, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Things matched up to what she remembered as happening, so she shrugged it off and powered up her engines, preparing to leave.

Emily was slower to leave, continuing to stare off pensively at the stars as Abram looked at her wonderingly. "I'm just going to have to take your word for it that things are better than they otherwise would have been."

"Considering the alternative was eternal imprisonment in Hell, you had best," Emily said with a wink and a grin. "Come, father. The universe is ours to see, and we have much lost time to catch up upon."

Abram was surprised, but not displeased, and went over to her ship with her quietly, smiling faintly himself. They boarded the ship, and took off. Two Darknovas flew out from the night side of the remote planet on the fringe of the galaxy, and together they entered a wormhole and they were gone.


	22. Alright, We Saved the Universe, Now What?

Azale randomly showed up on the Night Lords' ship and said frantically, "Sedder! I have to warn you. Hawthorne wants to kill you."

Sedder smirked and looked at him, and said, "Hawthorne always wants to kill me. That's nothing new."

"Yeah, but she seemed more serious than usual this time."

"Relax, Azale," Sedder reassured him. "I could kick her ass any day of the week if she actually tried."

"You sure?"

"Yes, Azale, I'm sure. It's very simple, really. I know how she fights. The key is, when she screams incoherently and charges at you with her sword, it's generally a good idea to not be still standing in front of her when she gets there."

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Ethereal Plane, Iyriel was slowly coming to again. He frowned and rubbed his head as he peered about. He wondered how he had gotten there, but after a moment, realized he didn't really know where else he'd be. It was very quiet.

"Eh.. I probably just got a hold of some bad dream shrooms, thats it." He chuckled to himself. Moving on with life, fairly unperturbed, Iyriel compulsively scanned the area, checking for anyone else in the vicinity. Somewhere nearby, relatively speaking, he picked up Tarna's signature. "Oh her, the cute insane girl who's going out with that annoying guy. Eh, may as well say hello though, see what's up." Locking onto her location, Iyriel shifted himself to that point and glances around. Tarna stirred slightly, rubbing her head as he approaches. "Ello," Iyriel said, giving a slight nod of his head as additional greeting.

"Egh.... What happened?" She stood up slowly, peering about.

Iyriel scratched lightly behind an ear. "Did you eat a batch of bad shrooms too?"

"No," Tarna said. "Although for some reason I don't think those 'dreams' were quite dreams."

"Eh?" Iyriel tried to remember, but found whatever there was to be fading fairly quickly.

"I ... there was something about some gods... and they were killing people... and... it was scary."

Iyriel replied, "I remember sexy women and offering to make their dreams come true."

"That's odd," she muttered. "Even a dream or a hallucination should be clearer than this. I'm better with Mind and Dream than that..."

"Eh.." Iyriel gave a faint shrug.

"Maybe it had something to do with Chaos..."

Iyriel frowned "Oh right, those creeps.. Wait.. I.. Well." He frowned, rubbing at his head again. Tarna rubbed her head as well. "Meh, Chaos sucks."

"Why do you say that?" Tarna asked.

"Cus," Iyriel shrugged. "If you don't convert and be crazy-stupid like them, they kill and or sacrifice you."

Tarna snorted. "You over-generalize."

Iyriel gave her an odd look, but shrugged again, reminding himself that she was batty. "So long as it stays out there and doesn't bring it's crap in here, I don't much care really."

"Technically, Iyriel, it's in here more than it is out there. The Chaos gods are in the Ethereal Plane."

Iyriel was forced to stop and think about that for a moment. "Well, alright, here's the remixed version, so long as I don't have crap spewed at me, I'm happy."

Tarna snickered. "You know, I'm Chaos too. And I'm not trying to kill, sacrifice, convert, or otherwise fuck you over. And wasn't really planning on it, either."

"As if you weren't funky enough to begin with." Iyriel grumbled.

"Now, let's see, where the hell are we..." She cast the spell 'where the fuck am I'. Iyriel moved away a bit, as though saying I'm not with you, and as if to make his point clearer, he tried to imagine a thick white line seperating them. Tarna rolled her eyes a bit. "Relax, will you? I'm just gonna pop into reality and see what the hell is going on..." She proceeded to... not move.

Iyriel archesd an eyebrow at her as he crossed his arms. "Well, are you going or not?"

Tarna frowned. "I can't.. it's like I'm bouncing off a heavy wall."

"Well try harder."

"I am! It's not budging," she insisted. "You try it."

"Why would _I_ try it? I'm not the one who wants to go out there."

"Well if it _works_ you can come right back in, then!"

"And what if it's easier getting out than in? I don't want to be stuck out there." Iyriel snorted.

Tarna rolled her eyes. "I don't want to be stuck in here."

"Like I want to be stuck in here with you either." Iyriel mumbled, if mostly under his breath

After trying a bit and failing himself, Iyriel gave the pursuit up and imagined himself a lounge chair to kick back in as he watches Tarna. "Heh, good luck."

Tarna, a little annoyed that he didn't ask what she was doing, said, "I'm going to scan for openings and try to slip through the nearest one I see... There _should_ be some opening at some point, from that side. People teleporting from place to place, people using heavy magic..."

"That's using your head," Iyriel murmured

"Maybe I'll slip through when somebody tries to uh, summon a demon!"

"I've got my fingers crossed," Iyriel said.

"Look, there's one!" she rapidly tried to access the brief hole, but it was too small and quick for her to get through. "Damnit."

Iyriel chuckled softly and says "Better luck next time?"

"I'll keep alert..."

"Though.. I suppose If I bothered to help, it'd solve both of our problems faster." Iyriel got and lets his chair vanish as he began scanning the wall as well. Tarna felt all along the barrier. "Personal observation?" Iyriel said. "I'd not get your hopes up, this wall is designed like a prison. Somebody put up a lot of effort to keep whatever is in here, in here."

Tarna grunted. "Do you really want to stay in here for the rest of your existence?"

Iyriel glanced at her. "The prospect doesn't bother me in the least, unless it means I have to deal with your nagging."

Tarna rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll just leave as soon as possible and leave you to your hermitry."

"See, I knew there was a good reason why I was helping you look for some opening." Iyriel continued to feel along the wall "Me, I've got everything I want and need in here," he said idly.

"Good for you," Tarna said wryly. "I'm happy for you."

"You on the other hand, have things to get back to, like that boyfriend of yours," said Iyriel. Tarna grunted. "For me, I really don't have to worry about that, never met anyone out there, and sides, in here, when I'm in need of you know what," he winks at her "I can just imagine it and make it the way I want it."

Tarna rolled her eyes. "Fine, just keep living in your little dreamworld for all I care. There's an opening!" She lunged for it, and landed on her ass again.

"You know Tarna, my little dreamworld that you have so little respect for tends to be a bit better and happier than the one you're trying to get back to. Judge me however you like, but you're as messed up to me as I am to you."

"You have some serious psychological issues, but I don't get paid enough to deal with them, so I'll just smile and nod."

"And you don't?" Iyriel asked, turning towards her.

"No comment." She stood up and brushed herself off, alert for another opening.

Iyriel snorted and gave a nod "That's what I thought."

"Maybe this time..." She leapt for an opening and vanishes.

Iyriel stared at the spot where she had been for a moment before shaking his head. "Not the best of prisons if I do say so myself, not when it's that easy to get out." Without a care in the world, Iyriel went back to his own little dreamworld.


	23. Warning: Duvon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Graphic torture and non-con in this chapter.

Duvon crossed his arms and travels, glancing about his new surroundings as he waited to be blasted or welcomed. Duvon had wound up on the command deck of the Corrupter of Chemos, the flagship for the Emperor's Children. Two figures wearing spiked black and pink power armor looked over at the new arrival.

"Who is this that stands before us?" One of them said, his voice static-laden and warped by his vox.

"Hello folks," Duvon said rather unceremoniously. "And my name is Duvon." He was unable to hide his amusement at their choice of colors however, smirking slightly.

"One that seeks the ministrations of the Great Hedon? We are apt teachers." The other one chuckled, and hefted the device in his hands.

"Sorry, can't say I'm familiar with what you mean. I have however heard that since I'm sadistic, depraved, and rather kinky, that I should speak with someone or another here."

The Emperor's Child braced and flicked a switch on the device. Almost immediately, an ululating and rather cacophonous sound emitted from the device. Everything imaginable, from the scream of the highest climax to the shriek of darkest terror to the moan of utter lament belch forth from this device, engulfing the entire area in its dissonance.

"Charming," Duvon said as he quirked his lips, lightly scratching at an ear. "They do tend to sound better seperated however."

The Marines looked taken aback. "That's the point. Well, you're still standing. What is your business in the Corrupter?"

Duvon arched a brow at the marines, regarding them for a moment. "I doubt you're interested in my life story or the personal issues that bring me here, so the short of it?" Duvon asked. "Well, I'm looking for my place within chaos, my inspiration if you will, motivation. This seemed the best place to find it."

"You seek to join the ranks of the Slaaneshi faithful, do you..." They did that laugh only Chaos Marines could. "Excellent. We have been needing...fresh meat."

"No... I seek to see if I can find what I want and need here. See, it's all a question of if this is right for me, and if I'm right for this."

"There is only one way to find out..."

One called the lift. Duvon gave a short nod and uncrossed his arms, waiting for whatever came next. The lift arrived with a screech, and the marines flanked him. Duvon glanced at them a moment, and with a smirk stepped towards the lift, as it was the logical thing to do at this point.

"You boys familiar with sexcraft?" Duvon asked idly.

They just laughed. "We hope that isn't _all_ you know about pleasure."

Duvon chuckled softly and gave his head a slight shake. "Alright... Are you paid well for this job?"

"Paid in the pleasures of the flesh and mind. And spirit. Yessss...." one of them grinned behind his helmet as the lift descended.

"Sounds very tantric." Duvon smirked. Good answer, Duvon thought. If they'd said yes, Duvon would have probably stranded them somewhere and left them there until they were willing to beg and offer most anything for return. Although they likely would have found ways to bide their time.

The lift stopped. "Off," one of them said. "Now you must be broken by the Fleshcrafters."

Duvon gave the speaker an odd sort of scowl, but he did however step off the lift. Some might think that sounded fun, but not to a dom who wasn't even slighly a bottom. Duvon decided to go with it for just now, given his morbid curiosity and primarily an interest to see exactly who ended up having the fun after all.

They got to work. First thing was first, they tied him down with coarse rope to an X shaped table. A masked visage got about three inches away from his face. "Do you think you know the meaning of pain?"

Duvon gave a polite cough, his smirk failing to slip. He was neither worried, nor concerned.

An unnaturally beautiful woman stepped up next. "Do you think you know the meaning of pleasure?"

A morose, shriveled looking husk of a man hobbled forward, all sorts of plugs and wires exiting his skull. "You do not know the meaning of sorrow."

And finally, a figure dressed in all black, similar wires and plugs extruding from his head said, "You _will_ know fear."

"Bring it." Duvon said simply.

Pain began with the skin in between his toes. A rusty razorblade. Pleasure french-kissed him. However, in his mind, he saw an inexorable figure, wreathed in flames and yelling his name while lifting a blazing axe. Fear. As he sees this in his mind's eye, he realized the absolute futility of the situation as he saw himself stripped naked and bound. These all happening simultaneously.

Duvon gave a soft sigh and closed his eyes, neither straining on his binds or particularly caring yet at what was being done to him. He'd felt, seen, experienced much greater. Though, the toe thing was a little annoying.

He felt the razor cut deep, as it sliced sideways and into his big toe bone. At the same time, he was suddenly brought to full erect as a warm mouth engulfs him. The burning effigy in his mind stomped closer, issuing an exultant warcry at his prey. Psychically, he saw himself as he struggled to break his bonds.

Pain worked its way across all the toes, hacking a sliver of bone out of each one. He then moved to the ears and begins flaying tiny flaps of skin off and rubbing unguents and oils into the cuts. Pleasure continued her work.

Fear griped him psychically and his heart pounded faster. He heard a voice now. "Your eternal soul will be my plaything, whelp." A cacophonous laugh, and the realization that he was not getting away washes over him.

Duvon made a face and gave his foot a slight jerk, mumbling, "Can you guys skip to the advanced stuff? Otherwise I'm liable to take a turn and show you all how it's done."

"SILENCE!!!" A marine boomed.

"No, I want to hear his pain."

"And I his pleasure."

"Let me hear his screams of terror!"

"Let me hear the resignation of his crushing defeat."

Duvon cracked open an eye, giving them all a look, and the eye was seen to roll before he closed it again. Pain moved to his torso now, cutting thin yet jagged strips of flesh in his chest and now rubbing an oil that somehow burns and chills at the same time in. Pleasure mounted him. The Effigy of Fear seized his psychic manifestation, and brought it up to one burning eye socket. He looked into it and sees nothing but loss.

In his mind, Duvon snorted loudly through his nose, bringing up a gob of mucus which he tried to spit into the empty socket. Physically, he let out a soft moan and said, "Yeah.. Now you're getting somewhere, ride harder, bitch."

Pain went away for a moment, and returned with a C-hook looking device. "I wonder if our guest knows of the ancient Terra practice of Chakra manipulation?" He chortled. He drove the spiked end into Duvon's scrotum and began to rather nastily manipulate the contents.

Pleasure moaned, dragging her clawed hands across his flayed chest.

"WHELP." His psychic manifestation heard. "YOU CANNOT DEFY A GOD HIS DUE."

Duvon opens his eyes and gave a loud hiss, now actually curling his arms, pulling on the binds holding them. Through gritted teeth, Duvon said, "I suggest you get rid of that hook idea, and quickly."

Pain continued his work, and decided to indulge in a little man-pleasure himself. The effigy in his mind laughed, and he felt the heat from its searing body. "YOU _WILL_ BREAK BEFORE ME."

Duvon thought at the voice in his head, "Heh... You know what? You're annoying."

The Marines tightened the bonds. They appear to have frayed monowire in them too, because they started to cut in a bit, not that he'd notice that by now. Pleasure's kegel muscles rippled around him. Pain continued probing in all forms of the word. The burning effigy opened its gaping saw-toothed maw and dropped his psychic manifestation down its throat. The psychic fire lashed all around him.

Duvon, at this point more angry and annoyed than scared, decided to try and act before it went too far, grabbing a hold of his power he focused on Pain first, simply attempting to randomly teleport the man elsewhere.

Pain suddenly found himself relocated. Another one of the Marines, although not quite as... experienced, stepped in and took over, at least with the ball-busting.

"I CAN FEEL YOUR DEFENSES WITHERING AWAY. IT IS..." the effigy's voice, little more than a psychic roar that surrounds his burning psyche, let out a shuddering sigh, "ECSTACY."

Duvon growled and closed his eyes once again, now focusing on his mental abilities, attempting to force the images from his mind, and shield himself from the pain and pleasure.

"AH, YOU RESIST. AS YOU SHIFT YOUR MIND TO THE MENTAL, YOU CANNOT IGNORE THE PHYSICAL..." As if on cue, the Marine slipped and dragged the point of the C-Hook all the way along his urethra.

It's about then Duvon realized he wasn't leaving until they have whittled and flayed every physical and mental defense he has. Duvon's body gave a jerk and he gave a yell of pain, his eyes snapping open and flashing as he seethed, his mind snapping. Pleasure climaxed, clenching him tight.

The Marine let out a mad laugh. "EMBRACE IT...EMBRACE YOUR MYRIAD EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS. GIVE IN. SUBMIT!!!"

No, They just had on their hands an insane Elkandu that was going to unleash holy hell on them. They really should have invested in demonsteel handcuffs, but they didn't know that. Duvon was beyond caring, beyond recognition of friend or enemy, beyond wanting to play by their rules, throwing out waves of violent magic in his maddened state, seeking survival and freedom.

A dull alarm sounded. Well, dull in relation to everything else that was going on around.

"I can taste his fear!!!" The psyker said as he was pounded aside by the magic.

Sorrow hobbled, and gavea forlorn look at the situation as he ducked a big nasty wave.

Suddenly, a woman appeared in the vicinity, staring at the spectacle. She was wearing skin-tight black leotards, and she had a strange talisman radiating power around her neck. Shining silver in the face of a living person with deep blue sapphires for eyes. She looked over at Duvon and gave a sigh.

"Mistress..." Sorrow said quietly, "A bit of a problem."

It was impossible to say whose face the talisman was meant to represent, but it seemed somehow hauntingly familiar and impossibly attractive at the same time. It almost seemed as though the face was alive, looking back at anyone who gazed upon it with charismatic blue eyes, but one could not even place whether it should be male or female.

Duvon let out another yell, now throwing out an explosive shockwave, attempting to crush them all, or otherwise shatter several bones.

The woman looked at Duvon and said, "So I see." She touched the talisman momentarily, and Duvon's magic was stilled. "He's a feisty one, isn't he."

"Mmmmhmmm...quite a mental powerhouse, but a few more days and he will be broken," Sorrow naught but whispered. "Oh, he spaced Pain," he said with a frown.

Duvon panted, for the first time showing actual fear now without his magic, struggling vainly, madly.

"He's on Lezaria," the woman commented absently.

"Mmmm...mayhaps we should bring him back," Sorrow said.

The woman summoned back the poor man with hardly a gesture.

"Release me," Duvon said between ragged breaths.

Pain looked dazed for a moment. "Thank you, mistress." He looked over at Duvon. "I see things are under control, mistress. Many thanks." The Marine bowed to him and steps back, allowing the master of his craft to return. Sorrow and Fear sat down again next to one another.

"Release me!" Duvon demanded, what fear was in his eyes being overshadowed by hate, if only the word were strong enough.

"A brief respite," the marine said, "But it shant happen again."

Pain let out a croak of a laugh and dug back in. Pleasure was now licking the razor-cuts on his chest. Her saliva seems to be acidic, not to mention the talons she was digging into his scalp. Sorrow and Fear laughed in unison and suddenly Duvon realized they were twins as they ripped back into his mind. The woman stepped back to watch silently for a while.

Duvon gritted his teeth and pressed his eyes closed, giving a soft voice to the words, "In the end of things, you, all of you, will regret having not listened."

The effigy roared in laughter. "WHO IS TO SAY YOU WILL SURVIVE?"

Duvon couldn't help but give a self induligant smile. "If I don't, it shall be all the worse for you."

Raw warp shifted through the room. Pleasure got off, Pain pulled out and backed up. The Warp energy engulfed the cross bed and levitated it. It flipped Duvon to face the floor, then pulled the metal through his body on the atomic level, until he was face down and bound. It then set the table down again.

Duvon shook his head clear, finding himself laughing softly even though he had just screamed. "Yes... That's right... Torment my body, wrack my mind, but you'll never break me... Only yourselves."

Now Pain went to work, peeling off layers of skin and muscle from his calves and the soles of his feet. Pleasure found something cold and pointy and returned the favor she just gave.

"FOOL. WE ARE FILLED WITH THE POWER OF CHAOS. WE KNOW NO MORTAL END. PRAY THAT YOU DO."

The woman shifted slightly, her lips quirking faintly.

Duvon might not have the use of his magic, but he took consolation in the fact he would win one way or another and simply closed his eyes, letting what would happen, happen, somehow distanced from it all, but aware.

Fear and Sorrow caught this and drove his conscious thoughts back to the here and now. Fucking psykers. "DO NOT LEAVE SO SOON, WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO TEST YOUR LIMITS!"

He now realized he was being psychically 'digested' by this effigy. Duvon gritted his teeth, wincing and emitting the random growl or grunt. The only obvious thing in Duvon's mind was a growing hate, no fear, no respect, simply aboslute hate.

"You came to find pleasure," A Noise Marine mocked. "Have you found it?"

He put his Noiseblaster next to Duvon's head and flicked the switch. Duvon quirked his lips, letting the sounds wash over him as they last, taking comfort in the fact one day, these people would be making those sounds because of him. The Fleshcrafters glared at the Noise Marine, wanting to hear their work being done, and he stepped back after a moment and deactivated the machine.

Pleasure raked his back with her free hand, letting blood flow down his ribs and onto the floor. Fear and Sorrow continued digesting his mind. Duvon hissed through gritted teeth, trying to twist away.

Pain moved away for a moment, and brought back a metal square with a multitude of half-inch needles protruding from it. He proceeded to press it into Duvon's exposed calf muscle. He giggled with glee as the muscle reflexively spasms.

Duvon yelled out despites himself, but he clenched his jaw and grated his teeth, turning it into a sort of growlish groan as he twists his head around, trying to look to the woman with the medallion. A clawed hand raked across his exposed cheek. Pleasure, not living up to her name.

The woman looked back at him, the talisman's eyes glittering strangely. Her own eyes almost seemed to betray guilt and sorrow.

Duvon growled and jerked his cheek from "Pleasure", including her in the withering glare he sent at the woman. "You... Yes... You will suffer the most."

Pleasure smiled and kissed him on the cheek, acid burning into the fresh cuts.

The woman folded her arms across her chest and said, "You presume much."

Despite all the pain, how tired he was, Duvon couldn't help it, and let out such laughter it was rather disconcerting. She shuddered a bit, and her lips twisted and twitched.

"Torment me, abuse me... Kill me... But this I promise you... It will be returned one hundred fold."

"You are also a fool."

Duvon grinned at the woman, blood streaming from the cuts on his cheek "And I will love every moment of it."

She rubbed her eyes.

Duvon grinned at her for a moment longer, his eyes gleaming even as he was, before he finally looked back to the floor.

One of the marines walked over and kicked him square in the face with a greaved foot. "Silence, whelp!"

Duvon hung limply, blood seeping from his bloodied face, forming a puddle upon the floor.

"Judge him, mistress... is he worthy, or..." Sorrow stood.

The woman with the talisman circled him quietly for a moment and said, "Release him."

The Noise Marines unbound him. Pain stepped away. Pleasure dismounted. Fear stood up and moved to his brother's side.

"He is stubborn. Very stubborn," she murmured.

The woman shook her head at him slowly. "Disappointing. He thinks so much of himself, and in his pride he will not submit to anything."

"Not the basis for a good worshiper," Fear agreed.

The woman touched his face and pulled him to consciousness again.

Duvon coughed and spat up some blood, giving a soft groan.

"You," the woman said. "You are a disgrace."

His limbs moved jerkily and then he opened his eyes, more or less realizing he was no longer bound "Takes one to know one."

She gave him a faint smile. "That particular cliche does not work overly well."

"Shall we dispose of him, mistress? Or do you wish the pleasure?"

Duvon remained silent for a time, his lips quirking at that question, and given the look he was giving her, being disposed of would be the best choice. The woman put her hand on his back. Duvon glared for her touching him, but he refused to move or give her any power

"Death would be a mercy," she said. She shook her head. "And not one I shall give you." 

The marines looked at the shattered body. She proceeded to chuck him into the Ethereal Plane alive. She stared at where Duvon was for a long moment silently.

Even knowing he couldn't influence the material world, and mindless of his body and its condition he swiped at her faint image. "No story, no line, nothing will save you, bitch. You all will suffer."


	24. Seeker of Truth

Once she had pinpointed their location, Keolah teleported directly onto the Word Bearers' ship. A number of robed cultists were scurrying around the vessel, most of them holding tattered parchments bearing obscene prayers. They were all muttering or chanting in what seemd to be tongues. Keolah glanced about the vicinity, looking for whoever might be in charge around here, but didn't spot anyone who might be. Some Chaos Marines passed, some rallying the robed figures, others flagellating them. Before she could clearly scry the rest of the ship, they noticed her.

"Who is this idolatrous one before us?" one asked.

Keolah turned and glanced over at them. "I am Keolah Kedaire, the Seeker of Truth."

"Ah, the truth..." They looked at each other. "The Truth will set you free, idolator. In it is dark power. You seek Father Lorgar. Follow."

"Very well. Take me to him, if you will, then." Unlike most Chaos forces, these guys seemed almost welcoming. She went along with them happily enough.

As they marched along, the lead one began a chant, which the others quickly took up. Soon they were booming it as they strode along the corridors, and the cultists and acolytes they pass cried and wailed in adoration of the dark gods these armored behemoths praised. She couldn't understand a thing. It sounded like random gibberish, but the cultists were soaking it up like sunlight. Keolah listened regardless, attempting to identify what language it might be, but couldn't make out more than it seemed to have something to do with Chaos.

Eventually, they came to a big door. Two more marines guarded it. "What do you bring before the Father, brothers?" they asked in unison.

"One who seeks the Truth." the leader replied.

She glanced them over silently. Keolah walked with the bearing of someone who has every right to be where she was -- wherever she happened to be -- whether or not she actually did.

"Ahhh..." One of the guards looked her over.

Keolah nodded to them slightly. "I am Keolah Kedaire."

"Let those who seek the truth be unhindered in their path!" The guards said. "So as are they unhindered, let us also find truth within the Eye!" her escort replied in unison.

Keolah smiled faintly at the guards. They pulled back the large chain-laden door. Keolah proceeded to proceed, rather interested in meeting this Lorgar person they mentioned. They opened on to a large hallway, the roof held high with pillars like the steps to an ancient temple. Keolah gave the place a good look-over as she walked. It was done almost regally, if it weren't for the squirming runes that gave her a headache on the pillars and the chains that drape from them. Pedestals holding books also dotted the area. Most of the books weren't sitting on the pedestals, but were chained so they didn't fly off at random. Keolah didn't particularly take this as anything out of the ordinary. At the end of all this splendor an opulent dias stood, behind it a chair holding a figure armored primarly in, of all the not-really-Chaos-colors, white.

Keolah looked him over and gave a bit of a bow, and said, "Greetings. I am Keolah Kedaire, the Seeker of Truth."

The figure removed his helmet, setting a fiery gaze on her. "You seek that which cannot be found in any library on any planet. You desire answers which no mortal agency can give."

Keolah's lips flickered with a bit of a grin. "Indeed."

He sported a large scar running up the right side of his skull, along with his upper teeth being solid gold. "The truth shall set you free, idolator. Are you one of us?"

"Not yet," she replied.

"Wonderous, WONDEROUS!" The figure stood. He was a _mountain_ of a man, at least seven feet tall and about three and a half feet wide.

"Dear dark patrons, we have a new devotee to welcome into the fold!" The Marines began to chant. He stepped to the side of his throne and picks up what appeared to be a large mace. Keolah grinned faintly again. It was bladed, and inscribed with all sorts of those writhing runes. It appeared to be bronze, but the dents in it would suggest a much more resilient metal. Apparently, it served more than a ceremonial function.

"Your forearm, idolator," he said. Keolah raised her arm obediently. He stood next to her and drew one of the fins across her underarm slowly, letting the blood slightly slick the mace. He was intoning something as he did this. The Marine guard she had was watching intently. For some reason, she continued to grin. She almost seemed excited.

He then cut his own forearm, letting the blood mix. "Oh infernal patrons, grant this, the newest of your faithful servants, the power to carry the Word of Truth to all parts of the galaxy and to stop ne'er till the universe knows your ways, the only true way." Keolah watched him intently and listened to his words, shivering slightly. "In the presence of my esteemed and mighty brethren, I bring you, Keolah Kedaire, into the embrace of the Chaos Gods Undivided." He took her outstretched arm, turned it over, and pressed the mingled blood on to her wound.

Instantly she felt a massive surge of power cut through her, raw and unforgiving. She feels her consciousness expand, (or was it hers?) and quiet voices began to whisper sweetly in her ears. Keolah clenched her teeth for a moment, then relaxed a bit again.

"Welcome, Sister."

Keolah grinned broadly. The armored giant smiled. "I am Father Lorgar, Primarch and High Priest of the Word Bearers Legion."

"It is a pleasure," Keolah said, bowing her head to him slightly. "I was one of the original ten Founders of the Elkandu, and leader of the Rezalkandu for a time. But the Rezalkandu are no more, and just as well. The Planar Wars saw an end to that."

"Indulge us, Sister." He sat down and picked up a quill, and opened a tome to a fresh page. "The Truth must be taken word for word."

"My name is Keolah.. it means, in Zarhian, 'Truth, Faith, and Hope'... "I was the first leader of the Elkandu... but it wasn't long before different factions split off. The Drakandu only wanted slaughter and conquest. The Kalkandu wanted to 'help' people. So my group started to be called the Rezalkandu... Philosophical differences," she says. "But _I_ knew that we were strongest when we worked together."

"As we would be too. However, our brethren, for the most part, follow but one of the Mighty Four. Fools they are. Blind to the true purpose and calling of the dark gods."

"And that's what I've been trying to tell the Elkandu ever since the Elkandu existed. True power cannot be attained through one thing, but through a combination of different things."

"Preach, sister!" Lorgar said. "We need not only bring this Truth to the ends of the galaxy, but to those in our midst. The blinders of singular devotion has such great weakness, and we do not associate with weakness unless we must."

"And yet they continued to split off into factions and squabble amongst themselves," Keolah went on. "Darkhammer, Whitefire, Tempest, the Watchers, and Conclave. But where did it get them? The only one of them that's still in existence today, is Conclave."

"We must bring them to us, let them see the error of their ways and show them the One True Path."

Keolah smiled. "Yes, indeed..." She paused. "It was not too long ago in Torn Elkandu that I spoke with someone who called himself Sindri. Would you happen to have known him?"

"Sindri was our High Sorcerer before the strange split in universes separated us from him."

"Yes... he appears to have vanished from the universe entirely now," Keolah said. "A.. 'friend'.. of his wanted me to try to find him, however I could not."

"A friend?" Lorgar asked.

"A woman by the name of Manasa, apparently. A telepath."

"And you cannot find Sindri? We feared he was killed when the bridge was broken, as his ties to the Dark Four were very, very deep."

"Manasa claimed that he was standing right next to her not three hours ago, and that he simply vanished. I could not find any trace that he might have teleported away or such at the location she said he had been at. That was at the point of the Time-Change that I had sensed. Although for some reason I feel that there was more to it than that."

"Where might he have gone?" Lorgar wondered. "And who is this Manasa? Is she one of us?"

"No," Keolah said. "She says that he refused to convert her." The Marines and Lorgar gasped. "That he wanted to, what were her words? to spare her the madness and atrocities."

Lorgar was stunned silent, looking for words, his jaw agape. "He...but..."

"Even though she had, in fact, wanted to."

"I cannot believe..." Lorgar stumbled for words. "This is unbelievable. THIS IS HERESY!"

Keolah gave a nod. "Yes.. That is what I came here to speak with you about."

"I..." Lorgar sat down, shocked that his High Sorceror of ten thousand years would somehow betray Chaos.

"I think, now, though, only a Chronomancer would know of his true fate."

"One that deals with the whims of time. Tzeentchian Sorcerors may know of this. Weak in following one god, faith-wise, but powerful magics, I will admit."

Keolah mused aloud, "Aviel... yes... Aviel would know... She was here during that time..."

Aviel appeared in the immediate vicinity on cue, carrying a couple books covered in ancient runes. "Yes, did you need me? Although I must say I do not believe Duvon is overly happy with me at the moment, as he is presently not having fun with the Emperor's Children."

"You loosed some hapless fool to the Emperor's Children?" Lorgar asked.

"The guy I was sleeping with," she said lightly, tucking her books into her robes.

Lorgar smirked. "I bet those debased Fleshcrafters are making ample work of him."

"Mm, yes, he's not having fun at all." Aviel said, before turning her gaze to the here and now. "Now, what was it you needed?"

"We were wondering where my wayward High Sorceror is."

"He is presently in Linear-Phi-12 in the Terran year 2005. I do believe it is safe to say that he is not coming back."

Aviel commented, "Judging by his words and actions following the removal of Chaos from this galaxy, he seems to rather enjoy his 'freedom' from Chaos."

"This is unbelieveable," Lorgar said. "What would make him change so?"

"Love," Aviel said simply.

Lorgar's brow furrowed. "What?"

"He came to love the woman, Manasa, more than his gods."

"How is that possible? This is the woman he would not turn to the Truth, is it not?"

"Correct," Aviel replied.

"How, is what I do not understand. This was a devout servant of over ten millenia!"

"Clearly, he must have been.. sane," Aviel said wryly. "There are stranger things in the universe the likes of which many of you have never imagined. The Elkandu have been known to do the impossible on a regular basis. Now, if that will be all, I must find the Crown of Sorcery and the ancient Tinean magic books..."

Keolah smirked at her. Lorgar said, "Elkandu, he was a Chaos Sorceror!"

"Yes, of course. I did not say it was he who had done the impossible." Aviel gave a slight bow and teleports off.

"She reminds me of the Warpdamned Eldar," Lorgar muttered.


	25. Sometimes It Just Doesn't Pay to Get Out of Bed

Duvon was suprised at the extent of his injuries, just how much they did to him, hurt him, and how long it took to repair the damage. He didn't notice at first that someone else was with him, helping him heal, and actually doing most of the work.

"Never thought I'd be thankful to Nizgen or his bitch succubi for anything," he heard himself murmur. But slowly, it dawned on Duvon that he wasn't alone, and that he wasn't doing all the work.

"What did they do to you?" he heard a female voice murmur from behind him, and she reached up to touch his shoulder as she sent in strong Healing Magic through him to soothe his pain and heal his wounds.

Duvon twisted around and away in startlement, his eyes narrowing as he looked to the woman. It was Kirlin Starfire, wearing her usual white healers' robes.

"Shh, relax, I can heal you.. You'll be alright. I won't hurt you."

He didn't move or try to stop her, his scowl remaining fixed as his eyes followed her. She reached over to touch him again, continuing to send Healing into him. "Who are you and why are you helping me?" he asked in a grate.

"I'm Kirlin Starfire. I'm a healer."

Duvon sent a seeking weave over her, making sure she wasn't chaos. Upon realizing that she wasn't, Duvon gave a slight grunt and relaxed slightly. At least, being in the Ethereal Plane, she had no trouble using her Healing Magic to its fullest extent, and fully healed him. "You want to know what was done to me? And by who?"

Kirlin gave a nod. "If you don't want to talk about it, I'll understand, though..." He sent through the touch the livid memory of what was done to him and by who, letting her view from a sort of third person standpoint. Kirlin frowned deeply. "That's terrible."

"Not the worst I have endured, but close." He grated, still visibly seething.

"Why would they do such a thing?"

"Thanks for the help," he said grudgingly. Duvon shrugged slightly, his silver eyes glittering darkly. "They wanted to break me."

"I work for the Army of Order," Kirlin said quietly.

He gave a low dark laugh, his shoulders shaking a bit with it. "But no.. That they couldn't do."

"Chaos is terrible... You... you shouldn't have anything to do with them."

Duvon looked at her, his lips quirking "You think?"

"I'm sorry that this happened to you. I would offer the support of the Army of Order to assist in finding and destroying those who did this."

Duvon regarded her for several moments, his cheek giving a twitch. "I might be Chaos.." Duvon paused, his lips twisting before he shook his head. "No.. No more. I have a score to settle."

"They have tricked and lured many of our friends into betrayal," Kirlin said quietly.

"You and yours do whatever you like, I'm going to kill them all."

"Well, I think that was the general idea."

Duvon turned to the side, glancing at her askance. "The order would stand in my way, try and make it merciful. Try to hold me back."

Kirlin shook her head. "You clearly don't know Scregor very well."

Duvon turned his head, looking back to the scarely visible real world. "Fine," Duvon grated. "Ten more minutes of delay won't kill me. Where is this Order?"

"Heaven," Kirlin replied. "I don't know if you _can_ go there or not though."

Duvon looked back to her and gave a loud snort.

"But perhaps it would be capable of purifying the Chaos from your soul."

"No, fuck you!" Duvon screamed at the voices within his mind. "You are nothing to me! Nothing. You gave me nothing, you value nothing. You are the shit in the cracks of my boots, validated only by blind worship and devotion. Go fuck yourself and your little dog too."

Kirlin said, "Maybe then you can be free of them..." Duvon stood there seething, his breaths deep and silver eyes burning with unbrindled hate, though he wasn't fully aware of Kirlin at the moment, her words sounding far away. "Maybe we can set you free, and silence those voices..."

"You sad fuckers," Duvon thought scathingly. "Nothing but children, spoiled brats. I renounce you! Renounce you for the garbage you are!"

Suddenly, they were attacked by demons. Duvon barked a laugh at the patheticness, using the Ethereal to its fullest extent as he waved a hand, scattering them all. Duvon looked to Kirlin with burning silver eyes and nodded to her. "Yes.. Let's go before the spoiled children throw another pathetic tantrum. You will have to show me the way," Duvon said. "Heaven was never a place I cared to go."

Kirlin took him there. Duvon shifted uncomfortably and glanced around, the aura of the place making him feel very strange and uneasy.

"Don't consider me bossy please," he said. "But if we could hurry this up."

Kirlin nodded and headed over to a regal, angelic temple. Pure white marble columns carved with delicate angelic figures held up the carven ceiling, with gold inlaid leaf adorning the walls. White candles in golden fixtures were set along the walls, however it was day and brilliant sunlight streamed into the place. Several other angels were around the temple meditating. Kirlin explained the situation to them.

"Are you prepared for this?" one said to him.

Duvon gave the angel a look. "Would I be standing here if I weren't?"

"Very well. Brace yourself." They proceeded to channel Soul Magic through him. It was like a burning deep within his soul, threatening to tear him apart from the inside out. For all the agony he had just gone through, he began groaning loudly through gritted teeth before he couldn't help it any longer, actually crying out as his body spasmed and jerked. After several long moments, the pain began to ease slowly and the screaming voices grew quiet. Duvon fell to his knees, twitching as he hugged himself, giving a soft whimper. Finally, everything went quiet and dark as he passed out.

Sometime later, he awoke in a soft bed, and apparently someone had clothed him in a clean robe as well. Duvon slowly opened his eyes and glanced around in confusion, giving a soft groan as he pressed a hand to his head. At least the voices were finally gone. Duvon plucked at the robe he found himself wearing, making a bit of a face at it before he climbed out of bed slowly.

"Damnit," he muttered in a soft curse. With a growl he set out, eager to be down to buisness, irritated about the unknown amount of time he was out for. At least the place didn't feel very unpleasant now. Striding with purpose, Duvon set out to find Kirlin, as she was his contact here. She was not far, tending to somebody's sprained ankle. She finished and looks over at him. Duvon nodded to her as he approached, rather than a greeting, the first thing he said was, "How long?"

Kirlin said, "About a day. You took it harder than we expected for one who hadn't been Chaos for very long."

Duvon made a sour face and grimaced, he at least refrains from spitting given where he was. "Irrelevent." He growled. "They didn't want to let me go or just held on harder to make it harder on me."

"How are you feeling?"

Duvon glanced at her "Irritated, angry, frustrated. I have things to be doing."

She nodded. "Good luck. If you need anything feel free to ask."

Duvon grunted. He did however give her a nod. "Thanks again for what you did for me.. It is however it may seem, appreciated."

She smiles at him. Duvon gave another curt nod and strode off. He attempted to recall to the Nexus of Torn Elkandu, and managed to slip through the veil and reached it. Duvon scowled around the Nexus, rotating his shoulders in an aggresive manner. Pyroluminescence was silent today for some reason. Maybe they weren't home. He took that as a bad sign, and it set him further on edge.

"Hey, you," someone said to him. "You're not Chaos. What are you doing here? This city belongs to Chaos!"

"It's the Nexus, get used to visitors." Duvon grated, glancing toward the speaker with burning silver eyes.

"We control the Nexus. Get your own!" A shield went up around the man.

Duvon snorted at the man and went back to his business, however, using his Seeking for the added awareness and warning if the man decides to do something retarded. He was smart enough not to attack him at any rate. Duvon wasn't about to start killing people until he had weapons and a bit of armor. He was not so far gone as to be that stupid.

In the armory, there was somebody working on enchantments. "Hey," Duvon said, inclining his head to the person "I'm looking for somelight but sturdy armor, and some bladed gauntlets, you have anything like that?"

He looked over at Duvon and quirked his head a bit and said, "I don't sense the aura of Chaos around you... Are you one of us?"

"How about you answer the question before I show you just how chaotic I am?"

The enchanter raised an alarm. Promptly, several armed people showed up.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Duvon said, throwing a hand back towards the doors as the men burst in, slamming them into the opposite wall with a telekinetic blast.

The enchanter grabbed a nearby scimitar and swiped at him, but Duvon twisted out of the way of his attack. The enchanter stumbled momentarily, his swing coming up short, and slashed again as there's the sound of more people approaching from nearby.

"All I want is some armor and bladed gauntlets," Duvon grated, "Don't make me kill you slowly, fool." He threw a hand towards the enchanter, and toward the doors a the street, throwing a telekinetic barrier up over the entry and blasting the enchanter again, who stumbled a a bit again, putting a hand to his head.

"You might kill me," the man said, "But you won't get out of here alive."

Duvon growled feraly at the man, giving a rictous snarl as he sent another blast at him for good measure, but already preparing a followup of a controlled blink to take him back to the nexus. Someone at the door was trying to get in. A lightning bolt came at him from that direction. Duvon gave it up, and went for his blink.

Aware his welcome had been over stayed for the time, Duvon attempted to use the Nexus to get him to Shieltas before more shit went wrong. Someone chucked a fireball at him. He managed to dodge right into the fireball, and ended up slightly singed, but at least not hurt too badly.

"Fucking.." Duvon grated, ignoring the smouldering as he answered back with a telekinetic blast formed into a spike, hoping to impale the bothersome git, missing completely and impaling the nearest wall. He tried to escape wholeheartedly now. Another mage nearby caught him up in a shield.

"Stop! We heard about you. Why they let you live, I have no idea."

Duvon, wanting nothing to do with being caught, tries to shatter the shield, but it held strong. Ninjas came out of nowhere and attacked him. Duvon screamed wordlessly, slamming futilly at the shields again in an attempt to escape. The ninjas disappeared again having failed in their mission and went off to commit seppuku or something. With one last effort, Duvon broke out of the shield. As he made a break for the Nexus, he evaded one last attack and teleported out to Mezulbryst.

He had no sooner arrived on Mezulbryst before he was getting attacked by his own shadow. Duvon shouted "I'm really getting tired of this fucking bullshit!" as he threw all the power he could manage into a shockwave radiating from him.

A voice from somewhere said, "You cannot escape. We are everywhere."

Duvon growled and lashed out again, throwing out as much power as he could, knowing it would draw someone's attention. It apparently caught the attention of a half-stoned drow necromancer, who appeared in the vicinity and proceeded to WTF at him. "You're interrupting my nap," the drow said.

"For fuck's sakes, boo fucking hoo." Duvon growled at him. "Like you're having remotely as bad a day as me."

The necromancer proceeded to rip out his soul and cast it into the Void.


	26. The Last Final Roundup of the Rabid Rambling Machine

Somewhere within Castle Shieltas, moments after Duvon's death, Rhuan grabbed at his head and went to his knees at the sudden surge of new memories. His head absolutely swimming, Rhuan groaned and wavered, almost falling forward. Suzy, having picked up some skirmish going on nearby, put away her tools and went to her office to check on what had just happened. She ran into Rhuan on the way there. 

"Oh, Rhuan, I picked up a battle somewhere outside..." Rhuan shuddered, taking several deep breaths, and tried to focus, bringing some order to his mind and the new memories still flooding him. "Are you okay?" Suzy asked. "What happened? You weren't out there were you?" 

Rhuan gave a jerky shake of his head, looking as though he might be sick, he in fact thought he might be sick. "Chaos.. They're here, attacking, killed me." he managed, not making much sense. 

Suzy blinked at him, went into her office and replayed the scenerio. Rhuan didn't try to follow her, as of yet unable to get off his knees or keep from wavering, now holding his head in his hands. She quickly put two and two together and rushed back to him and said, "Rhuan.. Rhuan!" 

Rhuan let his hands fall and slowly looked up her her hazily, giving slight twitches. She put a hand on his shoulder and knelt down beside him. He gave a convulsive jerk and fell into her, trembling arms and hands clinging to her. She put her arms around him and cradled him. After several long, strenuous moments, the last of the memories seeped in and fell into place, his mind stilling and becoming calm, likewise, his body easing and his trembling slowly subsiding. Suzy held him close, comfortingly. 

"Suzy..." Rhuan breathed quietly. 

"I'm here for you. It's alright." 

"They hurt me..." he murmured quietly. "God but they hurt me..." he whispered. "I... I remember everything," he said slowly, pulling back to look at Suzy 

"What happened?" 

Rhuan's eyes flash, and he gives a short nod "I'll show you. I'll spare you the pain.. The feelings.. You'll just see images." She gave a nod. Rhuan brushed lightly against her mind, establishing a contact, sending through her mind's eye Duvon's discussion with Aviel, then the scene on the ship, then the ethereal with Kirlin, then Duvon's cleansing, his return to Torn Elkandu and what happened from there to the moment he died. Suzy stared silently as she received the images. "There's more.. Years and years more.. But.." 

"That was Riven," Suzy murmured, identifying the drow who had ripped his soul out. 

Rhuan emitted a soft growl. Suzy hugged him. Rhuan blinked and returned the hug softly, holding her for a short moment. She stroked his hair lightly. "I can't stand idly by now," he said, lifting his head to look Suzy in the eyes. "This can't be allowed to continue." 

Suzy looked down and gave a short nod. Rhuan looked at her for a moment then brushed her cheek with the tips of his fingers before lightly nudging under her jaw, to get her to look into his eyes silently. 

"I know now, the truth of what Chaos is.. There were some questions before, but not now," he said quietly. 

Suzy nodded slightly. Rhuan grimaced for a moment, looking down for a short time before his eyes flicked back up to hers. She looked at him silently. 

"Please Suzy, I'll help any way I can, but we must make this place safe from Chaos." 

"Alright." 

"We know how to identify the Chaos aura... it should not be difficult to attune the wards to that. And I think it's time to open the wards.. Allow anyone in not chaos, but hold those who are out." 

"I think I can manage that," Suzy said. 

"Maybe I, er.. Duvon would still be alive." 

She proceeded to go to the control room to make the adjustments. Rhuan followed behind her, somewhat slower though, calling upon his newfound anger, hate and rage to assist him, ascending into his avatarian black quicksilver demon form. She got in and proceeded to adjust the wards. Rhuan moved to a window and gazes out at the sky, giving his wings and tail a twitch. 

"Hmm, this should do it," Suzy commented as she worked. 

"I wonder what Keolah and Hawthorne are up to?" Rhuan asked before glancing back to Suzy. "Good.. Then that's the first thing done. Next, we need to remove Chaos and it's presence from this world." 

"Can probably check up on them from my office." 

Rhuan nodded to that, "I think I'll do that.. I need to think of a way to deal with chaos, given the condition of the veil." Rhuan mused to himself, turning to head to Suzy's office. "When magic is unreliable.. When the threat is great.. What do you do?" he asked aloud. "Find loop-holes.. Items of great power.. Perhaps something that can enhance a mages natural ability regardless of the veil.. Nuke them all, perhaps.. No.." Rhuan shook his head and glanced at the computer, saying, "Computer, locate Hawthorne and Keolah, display." 

The computer obediently displayed their current locations on two screens. Keolah was on board a large spaceship talking to someone. Hawthorne was currently somewhere on Lezaria slaughtering people. 

"Computer, can you identify if they are Chaos or not?" 

"Affirmative. Match positive. Hawthorne is a follower of Khorne. Keolah is a follower of Chaos Undivided." 

Rhuan was silent for several long moments, his lips twisting into something of a silent snarl. Rhuan punched the intercom button and repeated those words over it in a hiss. Momentarily, Suzy came to the office. Rhuan was standing motionless, but for an angry flicking of his tail, glaring at the screens displaying Hawthorne and Keolah. 

Suzy said, "Not entirely unexpected, though. What are we going to do?" 

"Hawthorne? No.. Maybe not." He shook his head. "But Keolah.. That is something very new." 

"Is it?" Suzy said. Rhuan gave a nod. "Unless she knows something we don't," Suzy commented. 

Rhuan avoided looking at Suzy as he gave his answer, "I don't know about you, but me.. I'm going to treat them the same as any other Chaos follower." The deathly chill his voice carried doesn't sound very promising. 

"What are you going to do?" 

"I'm going to Lezaria, Suzy.." He said over his shoulder. "I'm going to do whatever I have to to ensure she doesn't kill anymore innocent people." 

Suzy sighed. "Do what you must, then." 

Rhuan gave a slight nod, seeming sad. "I pray it isn't much." One his way out, Rhuan grabbed his sword, enchanted or not, and recalled to the Nexus long enough to make the jump to Lezaria, sparing himself all the power he could. Hawthorne was attacking some people in Scalyr who had dared stand against them. Rhuan headed that way as fast as he could. She noticed him slightly as he approached, but ddin't stop or slow in her slaughter. Giving a sigh as he advanced, Rhuan tried to overwhelm her with his mind, take control. 

Thus follows a lengthy, confusing, and overly angsty encounter which does not make much sense anyway that involves Rhuan praying for the assistance of the old gods which have, for some reason known only to them, actually started paying some attention again lately and so Sarhabinse made it so that Khorne shut the fuck up for half an hour so that Hawthorne did not kill Rhuan, even though she probably should have anyway because he was kind of asking for it since he couldn't actually kill her because he loved her, isn't that sweet? So yeah, these old gods are apparently paying attention again, I suppose it must have something to do with the fact that Shazmar isn't technically around anymore since he's been reborn as Kanraku and isn't giving any further indications of godhood anymore and they actually first disappeared around the point where Shazmar vanished and got himself reborn as Valerezal, Keolah and Vakis's son, and proceeded to muddle things up from there and interfere with plenty of things he really wasn't supposed to be screwing around with. This was widely regarded as a bad move and has seriously annoyed quite a large number of people over the years, and hence most people aren't particualrly sad about him not being around doing godly things anymore, and most people don't even realize that Kanraku even exists, nor would they have any inkling of the fact that he is really Shazmar's rebirth sans memory anyway since he is such an innocent, good-hearted person who would never intentionally harm anyone unless they were being a complete and utter asshole and going around murdering everyone in sight randomly and doing otherwise evil and non-nice things to people. 

So after talking to Hawthorne and coming to no real resolution, Rhuan then went and found Aviel and after chatting with her he ended up forgiving her for her actions that ultimately resulted in the horrible death of his prebirth because she sent memories of the events into his mind in which she was feeling heartbroken and feeling like he would never forgive her for what she had had to do, although it isn't really certain at this point in time whether or not she was actually feeling those feelings or is just faking it to further manipulate him. Thus followed after this they had a good deal of kinky sex and then went their own separate ways, and Aviel went off to continue to try to find the Glass Crown of Sorcery which she claimed that if she found it she would place it upon Rhuan's head and allow him to rule the universe, like anyone actually believes that load of baloney anyway, except Rhuan who is a gullible git who for some reason keeps believing everything Aviel says to him, hence she's probably a better manipulator than I probably am giving her credit for. Or maybe there's the offchance that she's actually telling the truth for once and is actually doing this out of a pure and innocent love for Rhuan. Okay, maybe not, that was a pretty long stretch anyway. Yeah. 

Right, yeah. After meeting with Aviel, he went and talked to Keolah at some point or another, who had apparently not actually realized that Duvon had been Rhuan's rebirth, thus proving that she either really was not paying attention and just never considered it, or that their soul aura patterns weren't similar enough even for a good Seeker giving a casual glance without any real reason to think they were the same person to identify right off the bat. Keolah is perfectly happy with the Word Bearers and believes she has finally found her true calling and is for some reason aspiring after Sindri's old position, and considering that she's probably the most powerful true Omnimancer of all the Elkandu, well... There's definitely plenty of other Omnimancers, to be sure, but most of them are much better in certain talents and have completely neglected otherse to the point where you really could not actually call them an Omnimancer. Keolah, however, is fully capable of using every talent to near-equal levels, with the sole exception of Seeking, which is her inborn talent anyway, and Creation, which isn't really so much a talent as a Crux that is necessary for nearly every talent to some extent or another, which is possibly one of the real reasons why she's such a good Omnimancer and can do nearly everything pretty well, since it all involves Creation to some extent or another, except the stuff that doesn't, like Destruction and Alteration. 

Then Rhuan went back over to Shieltas again where Suzcecoz was putting on the finishing touches onto her ship. She brought the computer online and after a lengthy discussion and prodding a random name generator for a while, they ended up deciding to christen it the Eyes of Truth. Then they flew off for some warp testing and went off to the world of Wilderplane, where Rhuan whined about the Chaos Gods a bit more and went off on how he would never worship them because they were assholes that didn't actually care about their followers, and although he was probably right he's really just being stubborn and it's not like he had anything in particular against their methods considering all the crap he's done in the past, and Keolah was fairly accurate in calling him a hypocrite and even he could not deny that. Suzy, however, suggested that he go look for Clizhennozuri, and thus he looked up in the ship's computer banks information about the old gods again and learned about their legends and myths, so he went down to Wilderplane into the wilderness around Iridala Creek in hopes of running into the powerful nymph goddess Clizhennozuri who was said in myth and legend to have been found in open wilderness near freeflowing running water. 

Clizhennozuri appeared before him and proceeded to speak in a heavy elvish accent that she has for some odd reason which I think is just to make her sound cool and not for any real reason, and she rambled off in a bunch of vague riddles at Rhuan which didn't really say anything in particular except to confuse him and make him really think about what he was doing, perhaps she was indirectly calling him an idiot for all this, but he ended up feeling enlightened from the conversation and went back up to the ship and ranted out at Suzcecoz that he had found her and knew now what he had to do and proceeded to plead for Suzy to join him and gave her a guilt trip until she finally agreed to do it even though she really would rather have gone back to Chaos and hung out with Keolah some more since that was really what she had had in mind when she named the ship that in the first place, but she really could not deny Rhuan because she's a hopeless sodding romantic and especially not after he gave her a bunch of nice sex. 

However, little did anyone know, but Mika had actually just put the Glass Crown of Sorcery in his pocket to prevent anyone from getting a hold of it, especially not Rhuan or Aviel, nope, he wasn't about to let those fucked up nutcases get their little hands on that powerful magical artifact, even though they would really really love to and spent a really excessive amount of time fruitlessly looking for it all over the place. They were quite powerful enough without it and really did not need it to do what they were doing and screw things up, although them searching for it so much did keep them a bit out of trouble for a while. But no, Mika didn't keep it to use it himself, just to hold onto it and keep it tucked neatly away in the recesses of his bag of holding to prevent the screwballs from getting it and using it and further messing up the universe like people had this strange habit of doing, considering the fact that this was the second time in under half a millennium that they had somehow managed to destroy the universe, even though it wasn't really entirely their fault as the Nameless Ones probably could take most of the blame, although it was entirely Rhuan's fault that the Nameless Ones got out to do that crap in the first place, because he was an arrogant moron who thought he could kill a god and got played for shit and let them out and believed Dirania like a gullible fool. 

Meanwhile, somewhere else entirely, Emily looked up at the pointless text wall. "Looks like the author ran out of motivation to finish this novel and just started rambling." 

"You mean the rest of this wasn't rambling as it was?" Kalli said. 

"I mean, that was worse than usual," Emily said. 

"Right," Kalli said. "Okay, so what was the point to all of this again, anyway?" 

"We saved the universe," Emily said. 

"Stuff happened that didn't make sense," Kalli said. 

Aviel appeared out of nowhere and said, "You guys aren't supposed to be breaking the fourth wall, you know." 

"Who cares anymore?" Kalli said. 

"I'm out of popcorn," Theodore said. 

"I just want to know how this all ended," Kalli said. 

"Why don't we just pretend that none of this even happened?" Aviel said. 

"Sounds good to me," Emily said. "Especially chapter 15." 

"Except that it's actually numbered 16, because the prologue throws off the numbering," Aviel pointed out.

"I don't know why she even bothers to include that horrible info-dumping prologue, anyway," Kalli said.

"And she finally included the Duvon torture scene!" Emily said.

"But how does it _end_?" Kalli insisted.

"It ends with everyone involved getting bored and wandering off," Emily says. 

"And I'm going back in time three million years," Aviel said. "I hear Til'raine is nice. Maybe then I can make a universe that makes more sense. Oh, and I'm going to get Rhuan killed again, too." 

Meanwhile, somewhere else entirely, Lexen was sitting in the Chelseer manor on Lezaria, getting thoroughly drunk and trying to forget that the universe existed for a little while.


End file.
